Unpleasant Surprise

Today is National Pancake Day, and Ihop is giving everyone a free short stack (3) of pancakes. It's free food so of course my family was there this morning! I was thinking that 3 pancakes probably wouldn't be enough to fill me and Andrew up, so I also ordered hash browns and eggs. (I'll admit that I felt a little bad about just going there for the free food...and I knew that the employees would be hard to work all day.)

When the waitress brought over our food, I was so excited to use the flavored syrups. I topped each one of my pancakes with a mix of strawberry and butter pecan syrup. Each bite was fluffy and sweet. I had two or three bites of pancake left when I felt a huge wave of nausea. I looked around for the bathroom, panicked that I was going to be sick at the table. The waitress pointed me in the right direction and I left Kayson crying  at the table with his Dada. (He was really upset about me going away from him.)

I got into the bathroom and of course someone was in there. It's pretty awkward to be in the bathroom at a restaurant getting ready to...yeah...Two thoughts probably run through people's minds--"Is she bulimic?" "Is she pregnant?" The answer to both of those would be "no." I could go through the long, drawn out spiel of "Oh, I've been really sick since 2008. I get nauseated pretty much all the time, throw up occasionally, and get bad stomach aches. The doctors have done a ton of tests and still don't know what's wrong. Nothing that they do seems to be working." Instead of telling them all that, it seems much easier to tell them, "I'm pregnant and have bad morning sickness," especially if the person is a stranger. (Side note: I had more blood work done on Saturday, so I should know the results soon. We'll see where we go from there, but there is a chance that I'll have to visit a Gastroenterologist. Yay, for more medical bills)!

I guess the next time I go and get some free food, I should simply ask for a to-go box so that I can run to the comfort of my own bathroom. Yay for National Pancake Day! At least I got to make a donation to the kids and the waitress got a nice tip.