Part I

The weekend was fast approaching and we were so looking forward to it. Darin and I had planned a quick weekend get-away, we were going to Moscow for Saturday night, combining a trip to see Dani (I had not been to her house yet) with an extended date night.
Friday morning before school Justin comes in to our room and says "I don't feel good" followed by a quick trip to the bathroom to throw up. Let's just say throwing up at our house is not a big deal, it is a weekly occurrence. I stay home with him that day and he is mostly laying on the couch and throws up again later that day.
Saturday morning comes around and he is actually up and walking around, still says he doesn't feel that great, but still wanting to drink juice and watch cartoons. After a VERY lengthy discussion, we decide that I will still go up to Moscow with Katrina and her mom, Rhonda to visit Dani and come home first thing Sunday morning. Hopefully to be back before anyone else gets the "flu" that Justin has.
Sunday morning I talk to Darin, he says Justin is not feeling better and is laying around a lot more. By noon, I am back in Royal. Darin goes out to watch his favorite Vikings play in the football game as I get settled back at the house. After a little while, I notice Justin is just not "right". Having a little bit of experience with sick kids, I convinced myself he was dehydrated. He didn't have a fever and had lost interest in trying to eat or drink.
On a whim, I called the nurse hotline through our insurance, just to see if this was an emergency room run or take him to our regular doctor in the morning for dehydration. After a lot of questions, the nurse agrees that since he has no fever he is probably just run down from this flu. A final question she says, has he spit up anything that looks like coffee grounds? I said no and she replied good because that would mean he has internal bleeding.
Meanwhile I keep checking on Justin and he is becoming more and more lethargic. I call Darin and tell him I am taking Justin in, I can't wait until morning. He says he is on his way and we can go together. By the time Darin gets here, Justin is now somewhat unresponsive at times. I mention the nurse's question about coffee grounds to Darin, he stops and says well yes he did have a little of that this morning. Our hearts sink, we are on our way to the emergency room.