Just One of Those Days

Yesterday was supposed to be an exciting day of fun and partying. It was Trent's 5th birthday and we had a party planned to celebrate his and Troy's birthday that night. Early Friday morning Tristyn woke up sick with the stomach flu. She threw up a couple of times so she stayed home from school. After I got Trace and Trent off to school, I checked my blog and when I saw Kamber's picture, I started to cry. It does not happen very often but this was surely not the day for me to "be in the toilet" as my mom would say (it means "depressed" for anyone who is lost). I pulled myself together and headed out to feed the tortoises. As I got closer to their pen, I noticed that there was water everywhere. We had forgotten to turn the hose off the night before and their home was flooded. The worst part about it is that they had dug a huge hole where I could see the nose of one of the tortoises sticking out. I started counting and realized that we were missing one. Panic set in as I pulled the one out of the hole and started bailing water. I couldn't get it out fast enough. As I bailed it out, it would rush back in from the side. After a couple of minutes, I reached in the hole and sure enough, there was one at the bottom. I started to cry and said, "I cannot pull her out, I'm sure she is dead." Then my mom yelled at me to get it out, so I drug her up and out of the water. She was limp and swollen and then all of a sudden, bubbles came out of her nose. We rubbed her and blew on her nose to try to get some air in her. It took about an hour before she had the strength to move around again but she survived. A friend who rescues animals said that Tortoises have a way of holding their breath for a long time. They are able to stop their heart for a time and that is how she survived being under water for however long it was.

Pretty soon after our rescue I started to feel bad myself. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I didn't really feel sick but I knew that something was not right. As the day progressed, I started feeling worse and worse. At the party I knew that I was not okay. I made a few trips to the bathroom and knew that I had the same thing Tristyn had. I found out that my nieces ended up being sick later that night and my mom and Jen had a small bout of it during the night too. I am glad that day is over and hopefully everyone else in the family doesn't get it. I will just hope for the best but expect the worst.