Wow,  This week has been so long that I don’t even know how to describe it.  In the last 7 weeks both of my daughters have been in the hospital and just this week both of them were very sick and they literally both had doctors appointments at the same time on the same day in Children’s Hospital.  I know God says that he won’t give us more than we can handle, I just wish He thought I was a whole lot weaker.

To recap the last week: Wednesday morning when I got Chantel out of bed in the morning I knew we were in trouble.  The swelling in her neck had turned to a mountain with a purple ridge on the top.  I called her doctor immediately and told her that we didn’t have time for the ultrasound.  If we waited it would burst.  She sent me down to Children’s ER.  My expectation was that we would get it drained and come home.  (I tend to minimize the problem as a coping mechanism.)  Trina came to get Sharmi (she watched her all week) and I picked up my dad at the ferry on our way to the hospital.  I was so grateful to have my daddy, because it turned out to be a very hard day.  The 45 minutes of crying and kicking with two failed attempts at putting in the IV, before they finally got it, almost killed me.  It was hard enough to suffer through it with Chantel and empathize with her, but in addition, I relived the trauma of holding Sharmi down through painful and pointless procedures and I saw the pain, fear and betrayal in her eyes all over again.  Daddies are such a source of comfort and strength just being there.   

With the severity of Chantel’s infection they admittedus to the hospital immediately.  They put her as an add-on to the surgery schedule that day.  I was told that the hospital had seven cases like Chantel’s in the hospital already that week and it was only Wednesday (they usually only have one per week).  The doctor also told me that she was the most acute.  I found out later that Chantel was they only child with this condition that got surgery on the day they were admitted.  Hers was the only one serious enough to bump the schedule.  Shortly after Dean got there they took her into surgery.  Then after three days in the hospital, with below normal standard of care, I was begging to get out.  I was nervous about bring her home with a dime sized hole in her neck, but I felt like I could give her better care at home and we would all sleep better.  The one fun thing that Chantel enjoyed while in the hospital was being pushed around on her IV pole.  They have boards that they put over the wheels of the IV’s that the kids can sit on to be pushed around.  She was very disappointed that she couldn’t do that anymore when we were put in isolation after her surgery.

This week I thought I would only have one recovering child to take care of but Monday night Sharmi got a fever and coughed all night.  The next morning Dean and I packed up the girls and three bags and headed to the hospital.  We were sure that she was going to get admitted.  However, since the doctors were able to identify the source (sore throat) of the fever and since her blood counts were high enough to fight the infection we were pleasantly surprised that they let us take Sharmi home.  However, we had to bring Sharmi back to the hospital every day that she still had a fever.  While we were at the hospital it was clear that Chantel wasn’t feeling well and then she confirmed it by throwing-up all over the floor. At the end of day Dean drove us home and immediately turned around and drove to the airport to fly to Spokane.    

Once home Chantel threw-up several more times, her diarrhea was dangerously out of control, her bottom was covered in blisters from the acid, and the next morning she woke up with a bloody nose.  I called the ENT and told them that they needed to see her today and I was discontinuing the antibiotics until they did.  On the other side of the house, (literally because I didn’t want one to get sick from the other) Sharmi had a horrible nights sleep and she still had a fever of 102 degrees even with Tylenol.  Her throat hurt her so much that she would not eat or drink.  She obviously needed to be back to the hospital that day as well.  I thank God for giving us such great friends.  Since it had snowed the night before, our friend Carl drove the girls and I to the hospital, and he was an incredible help all day.  He held Sharmi the entire day and he even took her to get a chest x-ray while I took Chantel to the ENT.  We had a good laugh about how he pulled off the dad thing at x-ray.  To verify that he was her father they asked when the mothers birthday was, he laughed and said “how am I supposed to know that”.  Then gave a big window of when Sharmi’s birthday was.  They laughed and called him a “typical dad” and took Sharm’s chest x-ray.  The day ended well; Sharmi didn’t have pneumonia, Chantel was taken off of her antibiotics, I didn’t have to drive in the snow and Carl and Trina loaned us their nebulizer which he administered to Sharmi.  For as hard as that day was it went very smoothly and ended very well! 

Thursday and today have gotten progressively better, but the girls are still weak, worn-out and tired.  However, as Sharmi always does, she rose to the occasion and manufactured enough strength to go sledding.  Carl has braved the snow and gotten us many things this week, one of them which was snow pants for Sharmi.  She had a wonderful time sledding with Emalyn and Ethan.  It is a gorgeous beautiful winter wonderland out there. 

Today Dean finally got home.  He rented a car and drove back from Spokane since the next available flight was Sunday night at 7:00 PM.  We are glad to have him home.  We wouldn’t want him to miss the party.  Yes after all of that, I am still stupid enough to have the Christmas party that we rescheduled from last week.  I am trying not to live a “sick life” with our family and activities, but I think I overdo the trying to “live” part too much sometimes. 

Well, goodnight and happy Sabbath to you all.  “Live”  You never know what tomorrow will bring. 

Cheris