Is this Hell?

If you know someone who is naive about having children (like I was), please have them read this. It all started last night. Went to bed in good time to get up for my swim. By the way, the doc says I have "swimmer's ear". Who woulda guessed it? But darn, it hurts like a bugger!! At around 1:00am, I hear "Mom! MOM! Come QUICK!!!!" So stumbling out of bed I go, no contacts, pitch dark, I run (barefoot) to see what's up. I meet Matthew in the hallway and he has tried to make it to the bathroom. But alas, did not. And there is barf all over everywhere and i am in barefeet...do I have to explain? He is crying and apologizing and my heart breaks for him. Strip him down, new pj's, socks etc. Put him back to bed with a pail. I clean up everything and head back to bed. I hear him hurling and gagging for the rest of the night. I sat up with him for most of it, rubbing his back and forehead...the things you gotta do. Even a bit of Gravol did not help. I had two big meetings back to back this morning and I just could not get out of them. I bundle the boys up and take them to daycare and do not say a word about anyone being sick. Obviously, Matthew looks like hell and I tell daycare I will be back at noon to pick them up. I have to make a living and nearly bawled the entire way to work. The first meeting was one of our fund managers and it was 100 questions along the lines of "Why should we keep you?" And ALL I could think about was "Do I smell puke? Did I get it all off? Can these guys smell it?" The second was a family who had sold their farm and needed help with stuff. They had driven a long way into the city (left at 7:30am to make our meeting) so I felt obligated to be there and did not feel right about cancelling at the last minute. Every day....a balancing act.