My mom always tells me to wash my hands, but this time I didn’t. Now I didn’t get just a small cold. I acquired an extreme virus. This illness consumed me; it was all I could talk or think about. The worst thing is I got it on one of the best days of my life.

Going to the pool, lake, and my uncle’s farm. What bad could come out of this? Turns out I made one mistake in the process.  My uncle had just gotten two new calves, so we were feeding them. They weren’t old enough to drink water, so we fed them with a bottle full of milk replacer. Later, when my mom called me into eat she told me to wash my hands. Going into the bathroom I suddenly got distracted and didn’t wash them, huge mistake. The next day I came down with something like the flu.

This wasn’t the flu. I wasn’t able to keep food down or control my body. It got to the point where I stopped eating, so I began puking up stomach acid. I was the first of two to get it. After about a week or two, I was finally brought to the doctor. He diagnosed me with the flu, so we bought medicine and were sent me home. No results came in about two weeks, so went back to the hospital. They again wrongly diagnosed me and sent me home. At this time my sister was just starting to see the symptoms of what I had, and my illness kept escalating to the point where I was too weak to walk, so we went back one more time.

They now decided to admit me. I was wheeled to my room, stopping for a small tornado warning. Next to me was a man in the same blue gown as me, wishing that i get well soon. For the rest of that day I stayed in the hospital, running a numerous amount of tests. Getting my blood drawn, getting IVs, and taking urine samples. Being told I had chrisposprilliam was a weight lifted off my shoulders, knowing they could cure it. Chrisposprilliam is a virus aquired from unsanitary water and farm animals. This virus was one they would shut down public places for, so they wanted to know the source of it. The problem was I had been at all three in one day. My mom started to investigate, by calling my uncle. Turns out the new calves he had just got had gotten sick and died. We came to the conclusion that that was the source of my illness.

Staying the night at the hospital, I constantly had nurses checking up on me. Asking if I was okay or if I needed anything. Not having to do anything myself and having my food delivered to me was one luxury of staying there. The hospital gave me a small bottle of liquid medicine and sent home. Working almost instantly, I went back to my usual self, gaining back the 8 pounds I lost, jumping on the trampoline, and going to friends houses. As for my sister who got the same illness, her recovery was just starting.

I had trained nurses on their toes for me and she had my brother and I arguing about who would bring her water. It’s easy to say my time being sick and recovery was longer, but hers was definitely harder. Finally after one more week of medication my sister and I were perfectly fine. Our lives pressed play along with our daily schedule. Although it didn’t have a huge impact one thing changed, our cleanliness habits. Instead of washing our hands only after going to the bathroom we now wash them before meals and after playing outside.

In my experience I learned many new things, but the biggest one is that small things can have a tremendous impact. My case was something so small it’s practically an instinct. Moms know a little something or two about staying healthy, so do what I didn't and wash your hands.