We (Eric and I) were feeling better. We had done our damage. It was time to go. The kids seemed okay. Not great, but good enough to make the trek home. We were driving the entire way and with the uncertainty of an impending snow storm back home we felt it was best to get moving since it was going to take at least two days to get home.
What happened next was something I pray no one ever lives through in their lives.
Everything was going great. We were making good time in traveling north on 95 and seems like four hours past relatively quickly. Just after we had Savanna it started to get dark out. Around 10:00 we started to hear something in the back seat. It sounded like Peyton was choking. Turns out he was throwing up. Did I mention it was also NASCAR weekend? We were surrounded by car carriers carrying race cars all headed north. I had nowhere to go and started to panic. My son was vomiting in the backseat strapped into a car seat. My husband was hunched over the seat trying to make sure you can lean forward as much as possible. It was pitch black out, torrential down pouring, and lightning. I thought for sure we were going to get in an accident. That’s when my Danica Patrick kicked in and I sped up ahead of the trucks as fast as I could. I found the closest spot I could and pulled over for a second while we tried to figure out what to do.
I don’t think I’ve ever driven that fast in my life. We thought it would be best to find the closest gas station and get him all cleaned up. We got off the exit and pulled into the first one we found. It was closed so we just used the awning to try and assess the damage because the rain is coming down so hard. I put 1 foot on the ground and stepped in and an inch of oily water. It was so smart for me to wear flip flops. We went to the back of the car and opened up his side. He was still screaming at this point. It was once we started to get him out of his car seat that we realized he had pooped all the way up his back and almost to his neck. And the rain came down.
Once we got him cleaned up, changed, put in warm clothes, we realized that Avery had pooped also. The same kind of up the back and almost to her neck kind. Lucky for us her car seat was mostly spared. Bad news was she had some kind of awful rash that seemed very raw. Of course I didn’t have my usual arsenal of medications handy since the car was stuffed to the gills and nothing was easily accessible. We gave her some balmex for now since it was all we had, cleaned both kids car seats, lined them with the extra sleep sacks we had brought, and started on the road again. My car smelt like death.
Just as we start up speed and 95 we heard Peyton start choking again. He was throwing up again. I couldn’t believe it. I just looked at Eric in horror thinking ‘What are we going to do?!’. I quickly remembered that I had put a barf bag our friend Chris had given us earlier in the week into the seat pocket. Eric quickly grabbed it and was able to catch all the vomit without making a mess. (Thanks Chris!) I then got off the next exit. We drove up and down the road, arguing over where we should stop or if we should have left Florida so soon, or where he got it. Should we get a hotel or shouldn’t we. Remembering the horror on the way down I didn’t want to deal with that again. It wasn’t going to help. I wanted to bring him to a hospital. So for the second time we cleaned him up and tried to figure out what happened.
Luckily we found a rest stop that was fully equipped with everything a parent of a vomiting child would need. Once he was all situated we remembered the anti-nausea medicine we had with us and tried that. He puked again. But we were ready with the barf bag and caught the puke. Avery was behaving, sitting in her car seat quietly watching the action. And what an action it was. Eric wanted to keep going. So I trusted in my husband since he firmly believed the best thing for our kids was to get them home as soon as possible. Okay. Time to call the doctor and get some advice. Nothing to drink for at least an hour. When he stops puking small sips of fluids – but no water. BRAT diet (Even though we’ve been on that for about 4 days now) and wait it out.
This brings us to midnight.
