A New Record

Last week was crazy. Well, the last two weeks. Right in the middle of the chaos, we broke our record on number of hospital visits in one day...and number of children involved.



Friday:  Nate and Naomi come down with Hannah's cold

Saturday:  Nate rolls out of the recliner and lands head first on a hard object. .ER visit.  The CT scan shows no internal bleeding but he has a mild concussion.

Monday: Rusty has to stay home with the sick kiddos rather than come to my pre-op appointment as planned. I'm told my labs are bad again- do I want to move up the date?  We can't tell you what's best.  (Grr...). I already started the process of adjusting Nate's in home nursing hours in January, now what?

Tuesday: I lose my voice and both kids get worse.

Wednesday: Nate sees the doctor, gets chest x-ray, we spend 4 hours at the somewhat-local hospital (lab mix-ups), he has pneumonia. He gets an antibiotic shot, we grab supplies, then drive two hours to Kansas City (but at least we didn't have to  take Lifeflight).   We arrive at 8 pm.
Also Wednesday, Naomi breaks out in hives (but no fever so I think we have to get allergy testing).  Later that night Rusty gets concerned about her breathing and takes her to our local ER. It was just sinusitis and bronchitis, thank goodness.

Thursday-Monday: Rusty gets sick, Nate and Naomi slowly get better. Nate is discharged from the hospital on Monday.

Tuesday: Now all of the follow-up appointments/arrangements begin...more genetics testing headaches (ongoing studies-unrelated to all of this)...

Yeah.

I'm very grateful that I'm a stay-at-home mom, so I can juggle medical stuff full-time.

I'm extremely grateful for Rusty's patient boss.

I am very grateful for the many offers of meals and babysitting and anything else we need from our church community.

I'm grateful for friends who I can rely on to simply "be there" no matter how long since our last visit.

I'm incredibly grateful for a wise and proactive pediatrician, as well as compassionate, caring hospital staff.

I'm grateful for the Ronald McDonald wing inside the hospital that provides free food and laundry.

I'm grateful for easy access to a wide variety of medical care.

I'm grateful for a dedicated, loving husband and sweet, patient children.

And most of all, I'm grateful for the ability to truly trust in God.  I trust Him no matter how dire things look, and I'll trust him no matter how long it takes or how it turns out. His gospel gives me necessary perspective. His Son's Atonement gives me peace. Not only peace, but joy!

Our lives may be stressful, but we have so much to celebrate as well.
Happy Thanksgiving from the "Squirrel Family"!