Baseball players don't get sick

 We have the minor league baseball team for the Washington Nationals, just 3 miles from our house. I took the kids to a few games last summer when Brian was deployed and while I loved it, they were easily distracted from the cheap bleacher seats. So I recently got to wondering about how much the field box seats were? Only $16!

With it costing nearly a small fortune for a family of 4 to go to any professional level game these days, I figured that splurging for 4 $16 seats for the Sunday afternoon game on opening weekend, with weather predicted to be sunny and over 70 degrees, was exactly what we McCullough's needed.

I called to box office to see what time they opened and spoke with a sweet woman who would eventually sell me the owners box seats for the game! Turns out he wasn't going to be at the game, so we were in luck.

This was going to be fantastic. We'd go to church, and then head to the field immediately afterwards, as the players were signing autographs before the game that day. We'd have lunch there, enjoy a few beers and maybe even catch a foul ball or two.

That was my plan, until Tate woke up at 7:30 Sunday morning saying his stomach hurt. He would puke every 90 minutes or so for the next 11 hours. Sigh.

We all skipped church, hopeful this would pass quick. Nope. So Brian and Macy headed to the field, still as planned and Tate got into bed for a quick nap. Maybe that would do it? He woke up and agreed to try to go to the game. He said his throat was super sore, so I called Brian and had him order a slushee. (These seats even came with waitress service!)

He got dressed and then, of course, puked again. I knew we had about 90 minutes until he would puke again, so we headed there. Selfish on my part, but Brian really wanted him to see the game from these great seats.

Here are Brian's pictures from before we got there. Players autographing balls, right in front of our seats-

 With no one in front of us, and no one to the left of us, this was the view. The home team dugout-

And first base-

They were in heaven!

It was a tough walk from the car to our seats, but Tate made it-

And was miserable-

He tried to enjoy his slushee, I downed my ice cold beer, and then after just 1 inning we left.  Macy had to get to girl scouts, so we had always known that one of us would be leaving early. I was happy to be the one, and left Brian there to enjoy the game by himself. I didn't want Tate to have to walk all the way to the car, so I told he and Macy to stay together at the parking lot edge. When I drove up to get them, this is what I saw-

He was so, so weak. And was like this the whole way home-

I had brought along some bags and paper towels, just in case he had to puke. And sure enough, he did. He would eventually just wear the bag around his ears to catch the puke- 

When Brian  came home from the game, he had stopped at the store to buy flowers for me and Pedialyte for Tate because he felt so badly we missed out on the game-

  I decided that I should probably call the nurse line to see how long Tate can go on like this before dehydration sets it. Glad I called, because they wanted him to be seen. Here he is a few hours later in the lobby at urgent care-

The puking continued there, as did the sore throat, headache, fatigue, weakness... Although he tested negative for the rapid response strep test, the doc felt quite certain from the looks of his throat that the culture would come back positive. So he put him on an antibiotic and gave him a dose of the anti-nausea medication, Zolfran. It dissolved under his tongue, so we didn't have to worry about him throwing it up. The doc said he would be able to eat dinner in 30 minutes. I doubted it...

We went through the McDonald's drive-thru and grabbed some food for him to eat later at home. He certainly deserved a treat after 11 hours of puking! And on the way home, he again puked. I was thinking the doc was a moron. But... that was it! 20 minutes later he was eating his happy meal and didn't puke again.. Thanks doc!

I want a do-over. Hoping the stars align and we get another gorgeous Sunday afternoon home game when the owner is out of town...