What Are The Vows Again? In Sickness? Yeah, We've Got That Covered

Though Hilary and I have been together for almost three years, only a year or so of that has been in the same city. As a result, we are still going through lots of new experiences together. We each have relatively strong immune systems, and thus far have managed to avoid being sick.

At least until last weekend. Hilary went out to dinner with a couple of her girlfriends, and her tummy starting hurting when she got home. She went to bed early, but couldn't sleep. Things weren't going well, and...well, watch this video if you want to get a sense for what the rest of Saturday night was like for her:



Yeah, she had a rough go of it, the poor baby. I felt so bad for her, but it seemed like there was nothing to do but wait it out. We figured it was food poisoning given her symptoms, and I put in a call to our doctor friend Rich to get his medical opinion (he agreed).

We hoped it would pass after a few hours, but ended up staying up most of the night as she began to experience intense abdominal pains that literally knocked her off her feet.

By Sunday morning they had gotten worse, to the point that I half expected this to happen. We decided it was time to visit the ER, just to make sure nothing more severe was going on.

Emory University hospital is just down the road from where we live, so we headed there hoping our early arrival would mean a quick in-and-out.

When we arrived in the ER, there were only three other people there waiting as well, which we took for a good sign. Yet one hour later, there we sat. Hilary's pain was still severe, so I went to the counter to find out what the hold up was. I anticipated we might have to wait, but I couldn't understand why no one in front of us was going in as well.

The woman at the counter apologized for the wait, and explained that the delay was caused by a large number of emergencies that had just come in.

Oooooh, so that's what it was. My bad, I guess I misunderstood the purpose of my visit to the GODDAMN EMERGENCY ROOM.

I began to make plans to take Hilary outside and run her over with our car so that she might qualify for the hospital's stringent emergency care standards, but finally a nurse came out to get her. They put her on an IV and took some blood and urine, but everything checked out ok and we went home three hours later after she started to feel a little better. The doctor agreed that it was most likely food poisoning, so we assumed the episode was over.

And so it was - until Tuesday. Not wanting Hilary to feel bad for making me take care of her, my excretory system took it upon itself to get in on the act. The next two days for me went something like this:



Good times! Fortunately, Hilary was very sweet and supportive, fixing me scrambled eggs and a piece of toast and letting me watch a little TV in bed before I went to sleep (it may seem like a small gesture, but that is a huge concession from her). I don't know if my sickness was related to hers, but the two happened so close together its hard to believe it was a coincidence.

It wasn't a real fun few day period for either of us, but it did give each of us a chance to polish up on our caretaking skills.

So, future kids, I think you're gonna be in good hands. Mommy will make you some food or caress your head if you start feeling ill, and daddy will take you to the ER if it gets worse.

He just may have to run you over with the family car first.