It’s that time of year; the “crud” is back in action. You know the crud; you may very well have the crud as you are reading this right now. The crud is any illness infecting persons and making them extremely miserable, whether it is throwing up, fever, cough, or sneezing. We may also know the crud as the stomach bug, norovirus rotavirus, or the actual flu (respiratory). Any of these illness can be labeled the “crud.” You feel cruddy, you are cruddy, and you can make others around you cruddy at an alarming rate. As you may have guessed by now, the crud is in full force in my house. We have many variations, but misery is the prevailing common denominator.
It started in the middle of January. Our lovely snow day was interrupted by profuse vomiting from my sweet girl. She was crying in misery and because she couldn’t go sledding, hard to say which made her feel worse. That lasted the typical 12 hours; I scrubbed every surface possible with bleach like mad and sprayed our entire house down with Lysol. On top of that, I cracked all windows just to let the fresh air in and the contaminated air out. After holding our breath for 48 hours no one else got the crud, we were in the clear! Fast forward one more week, and my darling girl awoke in the night with vomit plus the companion to vomit (I’m sure I don’t need to actually write what I am referring to). She was home a week from school with vomit’s companion and finally after a visit to Chester Pediatrics, we were told she had the dreaded rotavirus. A few more days of sick, and she was back to her old, happy self.
Now we are four weeks out from the first stomach bug, and my darling was struck down again. I was frustrated beyond belief that she was getting the stomach virus, or some variation of it, for the third time in four weeks. She was being put through the wringer, poor girl. She awoke in the night with vomit, terrible vomit. The next day she was still getting sick and running a fever. After about 14 hours of misery she finally fell asleep, usually the sign that she is finished, and thank heavens she was. Again, my wonderful husband and I did masses of laundry, stripped all beds, and bleached the living daylights out of our house. We have our fingers crossed; if we are all still well by tomorrow, we will be in the clear.
Of course, I woke up yesterday with a stuffy nose, sneezing, and a general feeling of not being well. I am currently under a blanket, tissues handy, and feeling very woozy. The crud has found a new way to infiltrate, and the Lysol is back in action. I know all of you parents out there understand the terrible anxiety that comes with vomit invading your house. Will you get it, will the siblings (who are not the best patients), can you manage to kill every single cell of the viruses? I am constantly reminding my entire family to wash their hands, wash their hands, and wash their hands again. It’s the only sure fire way to eliminate these pesky, cruddy, germs.
May you all stay healthy and crud-free this lovely February, the month of the crud.
