A week or so I wrote about how Kate’s been puking intermittently for more than a month. (Actually it was more about me being a complete idiot, but I did reference Kate’s troubles.) In any case, the last week has been a flurry of tests, scans, and medicine. She’s had blood tests, upper GI scans, stool screenings (earned my mom stripes with this one), colon cleanses, and more, trying to determine why she’s been so sick to her stomach.

So far, we’ve determined that she has acid reflux and rotavirus.

What is rotavirus? I’m so glad you asked. According to cdc.gov…

Rotavirus is a virus that causes gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines). The rotavirus disease causes severe watery diarrhea, often with vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. In babies and young children, it can lead to dehydration (loss of body fluids). Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children worldwide. Globally, it causes more than a half a million deaths each year in children younger than 5 years of age.

Rotavirus was also the leading cause of severe diarrhea in U.S. infants and young children before rotavirus vaccine was introduced for U.S. infants in 2006. Prior to that, almost all children in the United States were infected with rotavirus before their 5th birthday. Each year in the United States in the pre-vaccine period, rotavirus was responsible for more than 400,000 doctor visits; more than 200,000 emergency room visits; 55,000 to 70,000 hospitalizations; and 20 to 60 deaths in children younger than 5 years of age.

So that’s exciting. Honestly, I was somewhat relieved by that finding, because it’s something that, while not pleasant, will eventually go away. My Google MD diagnosis had been a gluten sensitivity, which would have been much more complicated to deal with.

We are still waiting on results from a few tests, and because she had a combo of symptoms that is sometimes a red flag (waking up vomiting and right-side headaches), she is scheduled for an MRI on her brain. (Any Teen Mom 2 watchers out there? Every time I hear/say that phrase, I apply Leah’s accent.) Provided that doesn’t turn up anything exciting, that should be the end of it. And hopefully, with a daily regimen of Prilosec, we’ll be all done with the random puking.

Crossing my fingers.

That has been the question in our house for, oh, probably a year and a half.

Andy and Kate (and now Sam, although I question his decision-making ability) say yes… I say no.

Except now I’m wavering.

I’ve never had a pet. I don’t get the whole thing. I don’t know why people are obsessed with their dogs and I don’t know why anyone would get a cat, ever. I’m sure there’s something to it or 84% of the population wouldn’t have one, but I just don’t get it.

But Kate really loves dogs. She is so cute when she’s around other people’s dogs, and she really wants one of her own.

So then I start looking around Petfinder.com and see faces like this one…

And I think it really wouldn’t be so bad. But then I remember all the pain in the butt parts about having a dog and I don’t want to go through with it anymore.

So tell me, people – dog or no dog?