And Then There Were Three: A Worm in My Belly

the culprit

Ugh. Yesterday was a bad day in general, and so to shake off all the yucky mojo, I asked Ryan to take a quick trip the mall with me yesterday evening. We were just going to visit a couple stores and head home for a quiet evening together. Moral of the story? Plans change.

Earlier in the day, I had noticed a little water bottle in the back of my car, which was odd because I had just cleaned out my car and don't usually have bottled water in the house. I figured that Ryan must've stuck it there because he's more of a bottled water person, and we'd been sharing my car for the past few days. I didn't give it a second thought until later that night.

As we were walking around the mall, Ryan, Emma Vance and I, we were keeping E.V. entertained and happy by feeding her rice cakes. She started to get a little fussy as I was checking out at our last stop, so I told Ryan that she might need a sip of water. When I was done, I turned around to see Ryan with an odd look on his face and the aforementioned water bottle in his hands. As we left, he asked where this particular water bottle came from, and I told him that I had thought it was his. Wrong. (The mystery water bottle's origin is still up for debate.) He held the bottle up to the light, and I could see little brown somethings floating around in it. Upon closer examination, they looked like little parasites. OH. MY. GOSH.

Yes, E.V. had already had a sip before we realized that this water bottle was contaminated with something very, very yucky, and I flipped out. Ryan was more reasonable, but I begged him to take E.V. and I straight to the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Urgent Care nearby. He obliged, probably figuring it was worth the co-pay to not have a worrisome, hysterical wife on his hands all night. So we left the mall and headed to the doctor.

Emma Vance was as happy as a lark the whole time, excited to have new places to explore, new chairs to scratch and new people (nurses and doctors) to socialize with. I, on the other hand, had cried off all my makeup and was embarrassed at the perplexed look the receptionist gave me when she read aloud the "reason" I listed when I signed in: "baby ate a worm (?)". I'm pretty sure that might have been the weirdest case they've had perhaps ever. As for Ryan? Well, let's just say I have an amazing husband who indulges all my crazy-mom-ness with grace and love.

After taking the toxic water back to the lab, the result was that they "don't think the water has parasites in it," but they weren't able to tell us what the floating, worm-like things were. We were left with a list of signs to watch out for and sent home with the water in a bag marked "HAZARD" just in case.

Once we were told she's okay, I breathed a much-needed sigh of relief and began to be able to laugh at the situation. "Mom! I ate a worm! There's a worm in my belly!" Seriously? Who do these things happen to? Me, only me. This is my life! :)