Picture This! Pictureless.

In my travel blogs, I like to put just a few pictures of each day to document the visual side of things. In today's blog for Saturday, April 5, 2025, there are no pictures.  Porquoi? ("Why?" as I can hear Mrs. Brookie, my high school French teacher, asking with great exclaim)

It's because Cheryl and I spent most of yesterday sacked out in bed or praying to the porcelain god, especially her.  It all began with our lovely farewell dinner for Jeff and Leigh at Clementine's just around the corner from our apartment.  Both Cheryl and I had a fish dinner - me, pollack, and her, scallops.  And, they were delicious.  We traded dinners for a couple minutes and I ate maybe 10% of hers and, yes, it was truly scrumptious.  Jeff and Leigh went for a walk after dinner while Ray and Brenda brought ice cream back to Cheryl and I, after which we retired for the evening.

About midnight, I woke up with that chilling thing again and my wonderful partner got up and broke out the heating pad to get me warm.  Unusually, I was also a bit nauseous at the same time and had a small spit up before falling asleep.  About 4:30 a.m., I heard Cheryl in the bathroom wretching her guts up.  When this girl does it, she does it with violence.  Of course I hated to hear that because a) I was too weak from my own freaky chilling episode to help her, and b) it was this kind of vomiting that preceded the small stroke she had a year or so ago at home.

This went on for most of the next hour, on and off.  It was violent enough that all of the kids were outside the bathroom trying to help.  Jeff and Leigh were planning to leave for the airport at 6:00 a.m. and were duly concerned because Cheryl was confused - just like when she had the stroke.  She came back to bed after seeing them off - God knows how she managed to do that and I missed a sendoff for the second week in a row with the same thing as last week.  She was, however, confused about where she was, who was there, and what was happening.

There was some thought among us about whether to head for the hospital but she asked for some more time before making that move and promptly fell asleep.  When she awoke later that morning, she was, again, lucid (thank God!) and spent most of the rest of the day, along with me "sleeping it off".  Ray and Brenda were wonderful and attentive, with Ray venturing out to find Pedialyte or something with electrolytes for Cheryl to get her back on the right track.

We both got up around 5 p.m. and got some fluids in her.  Ray and Brenda went out to market for something she might hold down in her stomach although she hadn't vomited for several hours.  They returned with chicken broth and fried rice and she took a little bit of each.  I had a chicken kebab that they had brought for me although my nausea was short-lived and not anything nearly so violent as hers.  They also brought back charcuterie stuff so, about 7:30 p.m., she had a few more bites and was very clear headed.  

We stayed up until 9:00 p.m. before retiring but with all the sleep, I'm up at 5:00 a.m. and writing to you, our friends, to say all is well.  No hospital.  I do owe lovely Brenda, though, a big debt of thanks not only for going out for survival supplies, but also she had texted me the name of the nearest hospital (with good references no less!), as well as what to say to them in French about Cheryl's condition.  Ray said she's a planner but certainly one with a big caring heart.  It has been really wonderful to get to know her.

Today (Sunday) is when Jenny arrives with Dave, Ava, and Niamh in tow about 4:30 p.m. on the Eurostar from London (just like Jeff earlier).  Tentatively, Cheryl and I are planning to venture out after our tough 36 hours and go to Galeries Lafayette Hausmann, and luxury department store with a magnificent inner courtyard framed by a beautiful overhead glass.  They also have a terrific rooftop view to see Paris . . . if she's up to it.  Right now she's sleeping soundly while I'm restored (surprisingly) very quickly.  I'm glad I didn't eat more of her dinner or I could've suffered the same fate - food poisoning we think.

We're at the midway point of our month here and, for the most part, it has been an A-rated experience.   It would've been an A+ except for the couple bouts with sickness and by the episode where the pedi-bike kid took us for 95 Euros.  Having dear friend Connie here in week 1 was wonderful.  She's smart, witty, pretty much a life-long friend, and we had a great time with her.  Jeff and Leigh were charming, helpful, and so nice to be around.  Blood, too, is blood.  Ray and Brenda have also been entertaining, solicitous to the extreme, and also blood.  All of these persons are either family or like family and there's nothing better.

So, if the good Lord is willing and the creek doesn't rise here in Paris, we'll venture out today and be treated at the end of the day to our daughter, son-in-law, and "the littles" arriving.  Ray hasn't met Ava and Gigi and Jenny told him in a Facetime to "prepare yourself".  We will be prepared.