Where to begin?....

Well, as our family knows, we have had the toughest 3 days of our lives. Let me start by saying that Gabe, Maddie and I are all home...in Virginia :( Not that we don't love our home, just that our plans have been drastically changed. Let's see, in the past 72 hours we have: watched Maddie projectile vomit on a plane from Baltimore to Oakland(Thursday)-but which stopped (thank God) in Kansas City, Missouri, been seen by the paramedics at said airport, checked into a Hilton to watch her, taken her to the emergency room at Saint Luke's hospital in Kansas City, rented a car, found out she had ear infections in both ears as well as a 100 degree fever, decided to drive home to Virginia, visited 2 different Walmart's to get baby stuff (antibiotics) for the long road trip, drove as long as we could on such little sleep, watched Maddie start throwing up again in the car, stopped for the night in Booneville, Missouri to stay at a Holiday Inn, where Maddie only slept for 6 hours, woke up and began driving to Virginia again, realized it was going to be such a LONG drive, called airline and booked tickets back to Baltimore that day (Friday) from Saint Louis, waited in that airport for over 2 hours for our flight, flew home (she slept; thank God), came to our house and tried to rest, woke up the next day (Saturday) and watched her all day until around 7pm when she started violently vomiting (very scary) at which point we called the pediatrician's after hours number, while waiting for them to call back (took forever) we decided to load Maddie in the car and take her to the hospital, she vomited again-major, so we called 911 and they sent an ambulance. I sat in the ambulance with her and Gabe followed in my car. We were taken to Alexandria Hospital (where she was born) and she was seen. It was determined after several hours, medicines, more throwing up, diarrhea, a failed attempt to catheter her to check her urine, that she may just have a bad tummy bug. We were sent home at around 10pm last night and we put her to bed. I went out to find a 24 hour pharmacy to get her medicine. The end to yet another very loooong day. Currently, she is sleeping and taking an anti nausea medicine that they give Chemo patients (safe for babies) and I am finally having a cup of coffee and trying to process all of this.
Let me say this; I never knew I had it in me to deal with so much. From being incredibly sad about not being with my family over Christmas, to letting people down that we planned on seeing, from watching Maddie be hunched over, so sick and looking at me for help and there's nothing I could do, to the total sleep deprivation I'm experiencing-I just didn't think I had this in me. People tell you that when you have kids and they get sick, you are able to deal with it because it's your instinct, and I've come to learn how true that is. I also couldn't stop thinking that if something was really terribly wrong with Maddie (more serious than a stomach bug), how would I even deal with that? It makes me really feel for people that have had sick babies and have had to watch them be poked and scared at hospitals. It's the most horrible thing to watch and hear-your baby crying for you to help them and you can't. So, here we are. In Virginia and if today goes well (no vomiting or visits to the ER) then I'm hoping to get in the Christmas spirit. Just not quite feeling that way right now. Thank you so much to Gabe, Mom, Jer, Dad, Claudia, Lizzy, Justin, Dan, Jen, for all of your advice, thoughts and prayers. You couldn't mean more to me.