My favorite thing about you:
You're healthy
Taken with my iPhone 3GS, edited with Tilt Shift Generator (the best camera is the one that's with you)
Originally, I had planned to do Kale's first day of school as this week's project 52. Do you know that saying "You plan, God laughs"? I could write a book about how many times I've had to learn this lesson. There were other plans for us this week, Saturday night Kale got sick. We thought he'd OD'd on chocolate at a picnic, but, sadly, that wasn't the case.
By Monday at about 2:00 am, I wasn't able to keep anything in him, not liquids or meds to control his fever, so it was off to the ER. He was so severely dehydrated that they went right to an IV with fluids and something to control his vomiting (see pic 1). We were just about to be discharged and when he stood up, more vomiting. Something wasn't right. So it was off to an ultrasound and a blood draw. The ultrasound showed a cranky appendix. The hospital close to our house doesn't operate on anyone under 5 so we were ambulanced (see pic 2) to the Children's Hospital downtown. We saw the surgeon who determined that we likely didn't need to take out the appendix and he mentioned that the blood draw showed strange banded white blood cells (WBCs). Off to the CT scan which confirmed the appendix was fine, but that his gall bladder was also cranky.
We spent Monday night at the hospital (see pic 3 wherein they gave him some cool accessories for his hospital gown). He was given some antibiotics, and more serious fluids. By Tuesday morning he was more himself but the most recent blood draw showed no improvement in the WBCs. Let me digress a moment and say that Google is a nasty bitch, Google "fever+vomiting+high WBCs" and scary stuff comes up. There was some brief, however memorable conversations about leukemia. If you're a mother, that's never something you want to hear in conversation regarding your child. I've never felt like passing out over a conversation before. That evening the GI doc came by and felt fairly certain that he got a nasty intestinal bacterial infection. Holy great big PHEW Batman! But that still meant another night in the hospital as we cultured, tested, poked and prodded and a 50/50 chance at a 3rd night hanging out there.
Wednesday morning brought another rude awakening in the form of a 6am blood draw and more waiting, also a boy who was nearly back to normal (see pic 4, he learned that there was a mirror in his bed table). By the time the pediatrician came in at 8:30, she brought the news that the WBCs had not only gone down, but were completely back to normal. Not elevated. Not banded. Normal. Like nothing ever happened normal. We would be on our way home by lunch time. What?! Praise God! We left with no medication, not even antibiotics, just a couple of follow-ups.
Kale was a great patient. Such a brave trooper through it all - I don't think I would have been. He took each prick, poke, prod, and test like a champ (he even fell asleep during each of the ultrasounds). The Nintendo DS that we got to borrow helped, so did all the movies they lent us (seriously, every movie ever made was available), the playroom right outside our door with tons of toys and books, and the tricycle he rode miles on.
Here's what I learned through this experience:
- Don't Google things when your kids are in the hospital.
- Prayer works wonders/creates miracles, so does modern medicine (I'm convinced they work together).
- Children's Hospitals are amazing at what they do - every time I'm asked to donate, you bet I will, I encourage you to as well.
- I may live miles from my actual family, but my military family is an amazing substitute. There are no words to describe the sacrifices they made to keep life normal for Haley through all of this, and to support me. I owe them, and hope they all know I'd do it for them too.
- I'm thankful that my kids are healthy, in fact, thankful doesn't even begin to cover how I feel. I'm thankful that we only had to spend two nights there - there are many, many families who are not so fortunate as we were; I met them.
So here's what I'm going to do:
- Hug them tightly, and make sure they know I love them.
- Be more present with them. I'm putting down the TV/computer/iPhone/iPad and interacting more/better with them - I didn't become a stay at home mom to spend time with the household technology.
- Saying a prayer each night for their health and being thankful when they're healthy.
Want to check out some other super great Project 52 eye candy?
Can I link you too? Leave me a comment.
