Icky sickies

Early Tuesday morning, I woke up with that heart thumping "Oh, no, I'm gonna blow!" feeling.  I raced into the bathroom.  I won't get more graphic than that.  I think you get the idea.

Whenever I feel nauseated I think of all the many many many times that Ellie has felt nauseated.  And then I feel worse.  I know it is a pointless thought, but I am highly vulnerable to it when I am feeling poorly.   I remember when Ellie was maybe two and I was setting dinner on the table and Ellie almost threw up.  I thought that I could not go on living that way with Ellie so often gagging and retching at everything.  Even eating certain foods around Ellie like a salad or a banana would cause her to retch.  Or putting on lotion, not on her skin on my skin.  Or washing my face, not her face, but my face.  So many things seemed to set her off.  It appeared that she was always at least slightly nauseated.  At one point, it got so bad that we took her to the ER.  The medical team just didn't know what to do to help her feel better, which left us feeling much worse and in search of solutions elsewhere.  

[caption id="attachment_329" align="alignright" width="270" caption="Baby Ellie feeling good"][/caption]

Just recently I have been finding take-out plastic bowls that we had strategically placed throughout the house to catch anything that might come flying out of Ellie at any given moment.  I realized that it has been months and months since we were concerned about Ellie feeling nauseated.  It was one of the dreams we had that so gradually came true that we failed to even notice it.  I finally felt comfortable putting all those catch bowls back in the drawer because we don't need them anymore!  I am filled with gratitude that Ellie is not feeling that way consistently like she used to.  Ellie herself is surprised that she no longer feels the need to run out of the bathroom during lotion or face washing time.  It is so freeing to live life without the dread of nausea constantly floating over our heads.