How We Ended Up in the ER

This past week was full of highs and lows.  First of all, C had to travel out of the country for the entire week - the longest he's ever been away from the boys.  Although I knew schedules would be tougher to manage, I looked forward to a week of adventures with my boys.  I tried to plan my work schedule around late arrivals and early departures since I'd be doing all the dropping off and picking up from camp.  Unfortunately, work was extremely busy and culminated in a huge meeting that I was running on Friday.  Things were going smoothly as planned, despite all there was to juggle.  I was really looking forward to Friday being over, me picking the boys up and maybe going out for dinner.  Then Saturday morning my plan was to have a big breakfast, go to a friend's birthday party, and then maybe visit a beach we'd never been to.  At night, we were going to pick up C the airport in pajamas since it would be way past bedtime.

And here's what really happened...

By Thursday afternoon, DD wasn't feeling well.  He had an infection in his leg and a mild fever.  BB had an infection, although to a lesser extent.  A rushed doctor's appointment ended up being a trip straight to the ER at Children's Hospital.  After a lot of waiting, and even more pain, DD was discharged at 1:00 in the morning.  He got popsicle and a ride in a wheelchair out of it.

As a mom, those were some really low moments for me.  I was close to bursting out in tears several times during our 6 hours at the hospital; the only thing that stopped me was my baby - strong, brave, and calm as could be expected.  He missed dinner, he missed his bedtime, he was in pain, and then suffered through a very painful procedure, so it really wasn't my turn to cry.  When wheeling him from the ER to our car in the garage, I had to stop myself from running.  I felt like I had escaped something that could have been far more terrible.  I was anxious all the way home until I tucked him into his own bed - both my boys sleeping soundly under one roof.  We went back for follow-up with our pediatrician the next morning. filled our prescription, and tried to rest up most of the day.  By the evening, DD was feeling much better and was able to walk with only a little limp so we managed to stick with that one part of our original plan to pick up C.

We're taking things slow and I'm monitoring their progress.  Things definitely look better with each day.  Although I would have much preferred that C was around to help, I am grateful for the chance to have gone it alone, to prove to myself that I can handle it.

Today, we skipped summer camp for another day to rest.  Smoothies are planned.