Sickness Has Come and Hopefully Gone

I use to love winter and still kind of do, but I hate the sickness season that goes along with it. I know it is only January, but I am ready for summer. Not the swimsuit part of summer, but the kids being well part. I am sure by the end of June I will be wishing for school to start back and for the fall to come, because it is too hot. I guess that is just life.

Things have been going great since my last post until last Friday. Carter woke up from nap with 103 fever. I was starting to think how lucky we were, that we had not been sick in almost a month...I spoke to soon.

Carter does this deal were he runs a fever for about 12 to 24 hours and then is totally fine. Last year this happened every few weeks. We would take him to the doctor, they would run all the standard tests and everything always came back fine. The one thing I learned last year and will never forget, when Carter has fever and you put him in the car for more than a few minutes, he will puke. Unfortunately, I was not the only one who learned this; Larry and his parents have as well.

By the time he woke up from his nap, it was too late to call the doctor and get him and I was not about to take him to Urgent Care; been there done that, left 5 hours later with puke all over me and yes, I was pregnant with Natalie. I decided to hold off and see how he was the next day. Would you not guess, he was acting like nothing had ever happened, hyper as ever and wanting to go ninety to nothing.

Sunday, Carter was back to 100%. However, when one kid gets sick normally another child will follow in some sense. Natalie decided she needed to get the stomach bug. Now, her stomach bug was different then I have experienced. She really only threw up 4 times and had one 2 diarrhea diapers. She would not eat hardly at all. I started making bottles with pedialyte versus water to help replenish her. She did not have a wet diaper in 12 hours, I started kind of freaking out. By this time though, it was 1:30am and I was not about to take her to the ER. She was showing no signs of dehydration, so I thought I would give it until the morning. Good thing, because she woke up with a soppy wet diaper. Later that day, she was even eating cheerios again.

Kids, I wish I could have fever or the stomach bug and less then 24 hours be totally back to normal. I would be down for at least two days, but as most moms to still fulfilling her mom duties, of washing clothes, picking up toys and taking care of the kids. Men on the other, not all, but most would be out for days laying in bed doing absolutely nothing. Life is so funny!

Natalie had a check up here in town with Dr. Luckstead, our pediatric cardiologist in town. He said she looked great! Natalie is in the 9% percentile on weight, she has slowly increased since the first time we saw him back in February of last year.

I have been having this fear lately that something will go wrong with her heart. I do not know why, because she just seems to be doing so good and everyone says we will have signs. If you did not know she had a heart condition, you would not be able to tell until you saw the scar on her chest. She is so amazing! I feel so blessed each day she wakes up, she is so happy 90% of the time. I know I do not need to worry, but I just get overwhelmed sometimes with her future. I know God will only give us what we can handle and we have the best doctors around watching her. I guess, this is just how a heart mom feels.

I am involved in a group here in town, High Plains Mended Little Hearts. I am sure I have mentioned them before. There is about 5 families now and they have been such a blessing to me. I actually called one of the moms the other night having a little freak out moment. Jamie was wonderful and helped calm me down and talk to me about things. I feel so lucky to have these moms and their heart babies in my life to talk to.

I guess I have just realized this is my life now. Even after Natalie's next surgery, she will be fine as fine, as one can be functioning on half a heart. I have had several people ask me, "once this next surgery is done, you are done, right?" Sadly no, she will always have maintenance work done or even, possibly need a transplant in the future. Now a transplant could be at age 12 or at age 40 or never, who knows. Medical improvements are happening all the time, so Natalie will be fine, it is just a long road that we are on. I know I can handle whatever comes our way, I just wish she did not have to handle it. I hate not being able to protect her from the surgeries or not being able to fix her as parent (that is my job). I guess, I just have a lot of emotions that I go through daily. People tell me I am strong, I do not feel strong. I just take life one day at a time and there is no way I could do it without our Lord Jesus Christ. For now, I just continue to put my faith in the Lord and know he will guide our path no matter what that path looks like.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you an not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future"

Jeremiah 29:11

To close on a happy note...We have almost been back in Amarillo a full year! February 14th will be one year, kind of ironic since is is heart day and she has such a special heart.