The yuck hit us Friday night. It has been going around fast and furious. We only got a little taste of it - only two pukes and no major poops. Some of my friends have reported spending 12 hours in the bathroom, sleeping on the floor between bouts. A few loads of laundry and some ibuprofen later we are feeling much better.
I hate it when my babies are sick. When I'm sick I can wallow in my aches locked in my bedroom watching episodes of Castle. But when they are sick I might as well be sick, holding their feverish body in the recliner, trying not to move too much while continuing the rocking so as not to disturb the hair on their body that aches. It is hard to see them hurt and not be able to take it away.
One of my very good friends from Montessori had a beautiful baby girl a few years ago. One of the ultra sounds she had pre-birth revealed that her daughter would not come with 10 toes. Actually without most of one foot. She entered the world a happy healthy BEAUTIFUL baby with one toe and a heel on one foot. They knew they would have challenges and were very proactive, getting hooked up with Shriner's and researching extensively to see how to make her developmental challenges easier. At just a few months old she had her first surgery to amputate her foot just below the knee to make a prosthesis most effective. It was the first of many surgeries she would have to under go. The doctors weren't sure if her shin bone would continue to grow too long and have to take more of her leg, possibly above the knee. And then there was her hip which wasn't being held in the socket correctly. This beautiful baby was in a body cast for 8 weeks from chest down. Her mom carried her in a moby wrap that my sister had made for Emmy and pulled her in a wagon as she couldn't bend in the middle. Her beautiful baby healed and the cast came off and she wore a brace that held her feet and hips in place 18 hours a day and then 12 hours a day. I made her modified slippers to fit over the braces so she could have something pretty for Christmas. That was all I could do. And she grew and changed and got out of her brace and into a new leg.
This beautiful baby wore her new leg, learned how to take it off, crawled and walked even before my typically developing child did. She played and laughed and met Santa and picked on her big sister and said "no". And then they went back to the Shriner's hospital for their 47th appointment and learned she would have to go back into surgery. Her leg was not staying in her hip joint and she need a bone graft and some reconstruction - 8-12 more weeks in a body cast. Been there - done that: except now she is three. The family geared up again for what was to come. Compiling vacation time, ordering hundreds of diapers from diapers.com, picking out a wheelchair, locating that moby wrap again. She goes into surgery on Wednesday of this week.
Some say - "Your family is so strong, you will be fine. Our prayers are with you." And they will and they are but really, that doesn't take away the fear or heart-sickness of watching your child suffer. The nurse told mom that this surgery will be much much worse than her last. She will need narcotics to get by for at least two weeks and that won't take away all of the pain. So not only will her independent baby be trapped in a stinky itchy cast, completely dependent on others for way too long, but she will be in excruciating pain or nauseous from the meds. You can't possibly prepare for that.
I haven't had to deal with anything even close to this experience but I know how hard it is when my babies have the flu. I can only imagine that it is that pain times a million. But her beautiful mama and papa will dry her tears, and sing her songs, and rock her, and wash her hair, and give her medicine, and cry with her and they will get through. And this sweet baby will walk easier, run faster and jump higher because they suffered now. And she won't remember the pain and itchy stinky cast. But she will get better and share her beautiful smile with the world.
Life brings challenges to every family in very different ways. And they are huge to each of us as we experience them. But sometimes I need a reminder of how lucky I am. Am I sharing this story to make you feel guilty about things that you complain about that don't even seem to touch what this family is going through? No, not at all. It is just on my mind and I wanted to share.
Take care, sweet Annie. All of our love and prayers and hopes and wishes and dreams and peaceful sleeps and happy laughs are with you.
