So Much For Taking It Easy

I thought today we would just hang around the apartment complex and let the kids play.  They really don't enjoy going very far in the van or any kind of shopping.  I did a bit of laundry, cleaned up some and tried to get Ryan to eat.  The only solid food he's eaten since Saturday was a little bit of Kraft Dinner (that's macaroni and cheese in a box to non-Canadians) last night, not the best thing to recover on.  So I decided to give him a tiny Oreo, which is much better than KD, just to get something in his belly.  That didn't go over well at all.  It was only a few minutes and he was vomiting up all of the juice I had been able to get him to drink, all over me and himself (luckily not the nice furniture).  I called the doctor's office and got an appointment for 2:30 this afternoon.  Then I just needed to get our driver here at 1:30.  I tried texting him on my cell phone and it didn't work so I called Tim and he tried to text him.  Nothing.  Back to Tim's wonderful co-worker Sam.  Tim got him to call and ask our driver to be here to drive us to the doctor.  I don't like bothering people to do that kind of thing, especially after the meat fiasco yesterday, but we really wanted make sure Ryan made it to his appointment.  I was pretty sure that he wasn't deathly ill but I was, and still am, worried about dehydration.

At 1:30 Mr. You was waiting at the gate for us and we headed for the doctor.  Ryan fell asleep on the way and we were early getting there so we went inside and sat.  The nurse came and took us to a room and tried to get Ryan's temperature with an ear thermometer.  I've seen nurses do this before and the kid wouldn't even wake up, but not with this lady.  I  swear she was trying to shove the whole machine in his ear she was pushing so hard.  Needless to say, he woke up and wasn't happy.  The doctor came in not too long after and tried to examine him.  I say tried because as soon as she came near him he started screaming and I had to hold him down even for simple things like checking his lungs and feeling his glands.  In the end her diagnosis was what I had already figured (maybe I should be an yi sheung), he had a gastrointestinal virus and was now mildly dehydrated.  They gave me some rehydration salts and anti-nausea pills and directions on how to use them - very important because the writing on everything is, of course, in Chinese.  They asked me for some money and the nurse went and bought some orange juice and mixed up a batch of the salts.  Then the doctor asked us to wait there for a half hour or so they could see how he did with drinking it.  I managed to get three sips into him before he whacked the cup and spilled half of it.  I tried bargaining, bribing, blackmailing, and scaring him by telling him that if he didn't drink some he would have to go back to the doctor and get a needle (IV).  None of it worked so I told her he would I would take him and try when there weren't so many people around.

We toddled off to our van and I asked the driver to take us to Carrefour - the bigger one downtown.  I told Nick we would get him a toy for being so good for the hour and a half we were at the doctor then we would go pick Tim up at work since by now it was four o'clock.  Well, instead of what I asked he took us to the Carrefour by our apartment.  He wanted to leave us there and go pick Tim up at work.  I asked him to wait for us and he looked skeptical but did as I requested.  We quickly ran inside and tried to find a toy but, of course, they didn't have the one Nick wanted in a box and wouldn't sell me the one off the shelf.  We tried to find something else quickly but nature called and we had to run down the escalators for Nick to pee.  We gave up on the toy for the time being, grabbed a snack and headed back out to the van.  I told Mr. You "Michelin" and again he didn't seem to believe me.  I said it again and added "fu qin" (fu chin) or father and he realized we wanted to go to Michelin with him to pick up Tim.  Sigh. 

We headed for the plant and the whole way there I tried again to get Ryan to drink his salts, this time mixed with Sprite.  I managed to bribe him to take a few drinks with some Cheetos but he tired of those and I had nothing to work with.    While we waited for Tim to make his way to us I dug out the map I had decided to leave in the van and pointed to the Carrefour I wanted and he nodded.  Surely we had it right this time!  We took off again and eventually turned off the highway toward downtown.  We thought this was great until he turned into Riverside Garden - the apartment complex we searched through on the weekend trying to find the store with Kraft Dinner.  "Ah crap" was what I thought (well the PG version of what I thought), "he is taking us back to that store" but all I said was, "Mei you" (no, not).  He rambled off something and drove right past the store.  He was taking a shortcut!  When I realized this I said "Hao" (good!) and he laughed at me.  We finally made it to the Carrefour (Hooray!) and Nicholas and I ran inside to get the dark chocolate bars I used to get at home, some more juice and the toys.  Nick picked a toy dart gun after I said no to a bow and arrow (boys!). 

We got home around seven and again tried to get Ryan to drink.  He wasn't having any of that until he spied the dart gun and wanted to try it.  We used that as a bribe and got him to drink two glasses of the salts.  Success!  Tim took one for the team and let the kids shoot the darts at him to make them laugh and distract Ryan while I got him to take drinks.  Talk about teamwork!  He is now lying here sleeping on my lap (Ryan, not Tim).  As long as I can get more of the salts and other fluids into him and  keep him from throwing it back up, we shouldn't have to go back for the IV.  Let's hope!

Tomorrow we will try again for that restful day so the boy can recuperate and be back to his old self.  We will see what Thursday will bring.  Goodnight all!