Here in the Marshall house we have some bad juju.
Or so I am really starting to think.
I am pretty sure people are going to start thinking I either completely make up, or either extremely exaggerate, all of the ridiculous happenings at our house.
Remember how Preslie's emergency surgery totaled three surgeries in three months? INSANE! But not over.
Pax was sick with an ear infection that they started to treat on the Friday before Preslie's surgery, so it would have been the 14th of December. From Wednesday the 12th through the 15th we didn't really get any sleep. Paxton is not a happy camper when he is sick.
Most people aren't, of course.
But it makes it especially sad when this little munchkin is typically the life of the party.
Then the following week we didn't get awesome amounts of sleep.
Wednesday we saw the doctor for Preslie's neck and Friday we were in the hospital for surgery. She also had antibiotics and pain killers we had to give to her every 4 hours on the dot which meant setting an alarm clock to go off multiple times in a night to go downstairs get the prescription out of the fridge and try to wake her up to get her to swallow it. The next few days didn't consist of much sleep with that either.
And then it was Christmas.
And then it was Paxton's Party.
And then it was that insane trip to Portland that really did more to stress out our mental faculties than lessen them at all. Snow storms and seeing a million car accidents will do that to you.
Since we have been back from Portland it has been an endless parade of more doctor visits.
Post-op for Preslie's first surgery.
Paxton's oral therapist returned from maternity leave and wanted to see him.
Paxton's one year check up.
Etc Etc.
Friday January 11th Paxton went into see both his therapist and the pediatrician for his one year shots. When I have doctor appointments for the kids on days I work it requires me going in pretty early to try and get everything accomplished beforehand. So where I typically don't get into the office until 9-930, instead I am trying to get there at 8. Which with three kids can be a bit difficult. So that Friday was a bit hectic.
Then add in that Eric had developed a small rash on his chest. It looked like a bunch of infected hairs. He showed them first to me on Sunday, and then they just started getting bigger and hurting more. Eric has seen this all before. He tells me he has shingles.
He then tells me that there is nothing they can do for it and decides he won't go into the doctor.
By Friday though he had had enough and set up an appointment anyways.
Daddy took Preslie with him, and Parker came with Mommy and Pax to the other appointments.
Where the oral therapist told us she is still worried about Paxton's extremely low weight, and even more worried that he isn't talking at all yet. Pediatrician, in true form, isn't worried "just yet" but maybe next appointment.
And sure enough . . . . Eric has shingles.
The doc put him on some medication he said would help but needless to say he was pretty uncomfortable most of the weekend. It didn't help much that the Concealed Weapons Course we had already planned and paid for on Friday went from a quick 2 hour meeting to a 4 and 1/2 hour long course where we sat on cold hard cafeteria benches.
Beginning of this week comes and everyone gets sick with a cold. Nothing too terrible, just runny noses at first, but by Friday Paxton is full on freaking out, not wanting to sleep just miserable. When I realized that the brother of a boy we had come over and played with Parker had Croup I thought possibly Paxton might have it too. So Saturday morning we set up an after-hours appointment with the pediatrician.
Paxton didnt' sleep longer than a combined total of 2 hours Friday night to Saturday morning. Eric and I ended up watching most of the first season of The Walking Dead and I watched enough of Downton Abby to become thoroughly addicted. By six on Saturday morning I was fed up with even continuing to sit in bed. It's funny that it seems like nights are the worst. . . no matter what, they are just terrible. Lack of sleep feels so much worse at night then it does during the day. I think it probably has something to do with the knowledge that right now you are SUPPOSED to be sleeping. Most normal people are sleeping at 4 o'clock in the morning. Eric and I tried to do a tag team effort, have Eric sleep while I was up with pax and then vice versa, but it didnt' work out at all. Paxton freaked out way to many times for either of us to be able to sleep.
I called the doctor at 9:30, just having gotten out of the shower, they asked me to be at their office downtown (30 minutes away) at 10:15, when I asked if there was anything later they said sure at 10:30. Bring on freak out mode. Try to get ready, cleaned up, Paxton cleaned up, and in the car with medicine in 30 minutes was a bit insane. And then of course we had an inversion so I couldn't see farther than a hundred or so feet in front of me and traffic, for whatever reason, was terrible.
But we got there.
Checked in.
And then we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
There were two people in the lobby when we showed up.
I wasn't so concerned when they went in before us.
But when a little boy who came in 30 minutes after we did went in before us I was a little concerned.
I still think they forgot to check us in the entire way, but the front desk just said the doctor we were seeing was "behind".
At 11:15 (45 minutes after our appointment) we finally got to go back into an exam room.
I think I would have preferred to stay in the waiting room.
In the exam room it was just me and Pax.
Eric had to stay at home with Parker and Preslie.
So Pax and I were alone.
So Pax and I were alone.
And I was frustrated that things were taking so long.
And our obviously very sick son was non-stop crying.
And I hadn't had any sleep in over 36 hours.
And that's when I started to get really down.
The night before we had gotten Preslie's surgery form for her second surgery in the mail.
I read through it, mostly just looking for how much money they wanted before the surgery, but then stopped on the part that said "Excision of tumor from submandibular region".
Tumor.
It's such a dirty word.
Nevermind that most often the tumors they remove are benign, it's still a terrible thought.
And here I was sitting alone in a small room with a screaming child for now an hour past when my appointment was supposed to be. No one there for support. Just Paxton crying. And very much alone.
I count myself as a pretty positive person.
I look on the bright side of almost every situation, and when I can't I use massive amounts of sarcasm to downplay it just a bit.
But I think the events of the past couple of months had just started to pile up.
It's like Eric and I are running and we keep saying thinks like "once we get to that tree we can stop running" only we get to that tree and we can't stop, so we say "once we get to that rock we can stop" only we can't stop once we get there either.
Once we get through Eric's surgery we will be good.
Once we get through Paxton's surgery we will be good.
Once we get through Paxton's ear infection we will be good.
Once we get through Preslie's emergency surgery we will be good.
Once we get to Portland on these icy roads we will be good.
Once we get hom from Portland on these icy road we will be good.
Once we get through this week full of doctor's appointments we will be good.
Once we get Paxton's weight up we will be good.
Once we get Paxton talking we will be good.
Once we get through Eric's shingles we will be good.
Once we get through Preslie's second surgery we will be good.
It's like we keep opening doors just to find another door behind it.
Too many analogies?
Probably.
And in reality, I should be better at recognizing that right now, this minute is GOOD. I can't always look ahead to the future with the idea that then it will be good, I have to enjoy getting there. But sometimes it is hard to remember that.
But that is what I was feeling in that room.
All by myself.
With no one to talk to.
And then at 11:45 - a full hour and fifteen minutes after the scheduled appointment, the doctor finally came in. She verified that Paxton indeed had another ear infection and said that with how closely the ear infections happened that we might think about putting tubes in his ears (Ya for more surgeries, right?). She then said that she thought it was a good chance he had croup, but that there wasn't anything she could do about it. She also said that she thought he must be sick with something viral.
I think she noticed that I was pretty upset and in talking with me it came out that Eric had shingles. When she found out that his shingles started about two weeks before she said we should check Pax. Sure enough on his bum cheeks right by his diaper are two little red bumps.
I'm not convinced at this point they are Chicken pox. He gets little bumps on his bum like infected hairs quite frequently. I'm sure diapers don't help.
But she said that Eric having shingles could easily pass chicken pox to our kids.
And the incubation period for chicken pox is two weeks. Which we are smack dab at two weeks.
Only Parker and Preslie have already had the chicken pox vaccine so they are safe.
Paxton . . . . well they don't give the vaccine until 15 months old.
So no vaccine yet.
Possibility that he has chicken pox: HIGH
The doc told us there was nothing she could do even if he does have chicken pox. She said to keep watching and see if he gets more bumps and then to let our normal pediatrician (her associate) know.
She also said that we needed to keep Paxton as far away from Preslie as possible given her surgery on Monday.
Once we get through this second ear infection we will be fine.
Once we get through the weekend we will be fine.
Once we get through Preslie's second surgery on Monday we will be fine.
I just hope there stops being doors behind doors soon.
In the meantime I have an amazing husband to lean on. He let me complain. And he helped out.
I also have an awesome family that looks to help.
And I even have a group of pretty spectacular friends that have all decided when they are coming over to help my insanity.
It's hard for me to accept help from others.
I like giving it just fine.
But somehow I feel weak when others give to me.
I should get over it, I know, but that's just me.
I am now back to my positive upbeat and "can-do" self. Don't worry. The poor picked on me attitude didn't stay for very long. Right now, at the very least I can be super grateful for the fact that we have such amazing health insurance.
No comments:
Post a Comment