our last day as permanent residents in china

Tomorrow we fly. This past week has been: me in a fetal position, burning hot to the touch, trying to induce vomit, etc to feel just a smidge of relief from the most intense bout of food poisoning I've ever had. Most intense as in I've had longer bouts of food poisoning before, but never one so painful, to the point where I couldn't even lie down and there was no relief. Daniel valiantly stepped up to man childcare duties, as Declan insisted on my holding him even as I was bent over on the porcelain god. It started at 2am in Hangzhou, and then we needed to bring everything we owned in China with us on a three hour van ride to Shanghai at 11am the next day. Daniel joked that the hotel we checked into in Shanghai probably thought we're here for my heroin detox. As soon as we arrived, I collapsed on the bed, roiling in my own personal hell while Daniel had to baby proof the room i.e. tell them to remove all the liquor bottles and glass containers that were at Declan's height.

Two days later, I felt better, but as I was reclining in bed, weak from a diet of water and gatorade for 48 hours, Declan suddenly woke up from his nap with a geyser of vomit. Everything he ate at breakfast came pouring out, and more, as he dry-heaved.

The vomiting went on for two days. Everything I tried to get into him came back up five, 10 minutes later. We were besides ourselves. He had ceased to pee, was starting to look pale and listless, was exhausted. Finally, we took him to a hospital 10 minutes away and added another chapter to our China experience: going through the (emergency) health care system here.

There are a lot of things I am truly thankful for right now. I am thankful that we made the decision to quit the job and leave. Life here with a baby is just too hard for us. The standards really are different. No I.V. drip for a baby with a fever, no pee since more than a day ago, and severe diarrhea? I'm not a doctor, but that sounds a bit screwy. I am thankful that I was still almost exclusively breastfeeding Declan, so that without being able to find Pedialite or make my own ORS (can't find baking soda)--I'm still able to help Declan stay nourished and get hydrated. He's finally stopped throwing up. I don't know if it had anything to do with the enema the hospital told us to give him. I am thankful that his illness happened just as I was rallying from mine; otherwise, there was no way I could have battled the queuing and shoving for our personal spaces at the hospital the way we needed. As it was, I felt faint a few times, started crying at one point, and was graced to skip ahead of a saintly couple of grandparents whose grandson was also in line at the emergency.

So now two days after that, Declan's still pooping awful things, but not vomiting or with fever, and is napping calmly. I am feeling stronger and actually ate two small but solid meals yesterday (shrimp fried rice for lunch; braised beef stew over rice for dinner). And tomorrow we fly.

Hallelujah, merry Christmas!