Who's gearing up for Christmas?! We have our annual joke present Hewitt
Christmas next weekend!! So we are preparing our gag gifts this week. We've
thought long and hard all year, and i even keep a list, of possible joke present
idea's throughout the year. If anyone in this family does something anyone
would deem "dumb", "silly" or emabarrassing throughout the year, I keep notes:)
This day is filled with laughter and silliness like crazy:) It's a time where
we laugh so hard with our family and friends, we usually cry:) I really should
send you all some pictures of this event in the next update....
Moving on.
Last week Ayla spend a few days in the hospital
for sleepovers. She had a fever that would not go away for 3 days. I was able
to get a hold of her pediatrician who advised us to head in and plan to stay for
a while. On the drugs she's on a persistant fever has to be treated by a
certain protocol. This also included being in protective isolation, which means
they stick you in a room you can't leave, and people in or out are supposed to
wear a gown and mask. This is to protect her b/c she's immunosuppressed. The
kind of "funny" part was that b/c of some of the meds, all of her clothes and
sheets and stuff had to go into a huge red biohazard box that people in hazmat
suits pick up i guess...but somehow she walks around every day touching people
and dirtying stuff and other people survive! I guess it's b/c there is possible
radiation in the drugs. Better safe than sorry, just makes me chuckle b/c all
her treatments over the last year NO ONE SAID A WORD in the hospital about the
sheets the sat on (or sneezed on).
Anyway, she had a chest xray, and loads and
loads and loads of bloodwork and cultures. For the most part it was
an uneventful visit, none of the tests actually showed anything. Can someone
please tell me why the lab techs come in before she was awake to jab her with
needles for blood (it's not scarey at all to wake up to people in yellow gowns
and masks on with needles at all....).
She got tonnes of new beads for her Beads of
Courage necklace and got to do some fun crafts. Nana came down and played and
distracted. Ezra and Ayla came up some some interesting games to play in a
hallway/corner of our room. Such as Ezra standing in the corner and Ayla
throwing a foam hockey puck at him to see how many times she could hit him or
throwing these little rubber toys (Squinkies) against the wall and watching them
BOUNCE AROUND THE ROOM. Thankfully Ryan is working in the area now and was able
to meet us there when she was admitted and come up every night for dinner.
It's been a while since we have any sleepovers,
but as soon as i told Ayla that we had to go to the hospital and sleep over, she
teared up. She said, "I'm scared..." I don't blame her...me too. Especially
considering this month 3 years ago were when our sleep over visits to the
hospital began. And that was b/c of a persistent fever, with no other symptoms,
just like this one. I think she remembers far more than anyone thinks. She's
actually almost the same age as Ezra was when this started. Thankfully there
are lots of familiar faces there now and other than the lab people, everyone was
great. It was actually kind of nice in a way to be in isolation b/c it limited
the amount of Resident Docs and Students that would come in and say, "so, can
you give me her history?" To which i respond, "really....? How much time do
you have. READ THE CHART!!!"
We got home last friday and she had been fever
free since Wed morning in the hospital. The kicker was, Saturday night her
fever returned....it continued into Sunday. And i began to grow weary...
consecutive nights of hospital sleep do no one any good at all. And coming home
to all the stuff you were supposed to get done but instead had to be at the
hospital is overwhelming b/c all you want to do is hit the pillow and sleep for
a couple days.
Sunday morning in church (of course) i broke
down into tears. But thankfully that place is full of "family" and some special
people prayed with me and talked me down:) Sunday evening her fever subsided
and hasn't returned.
She had some sores in her mouth that were
causing her tremendous pain earlier in the week and she couldn't really eat, but
they seem to be gone or at least not bothering her as much now.
Something that humbled me deeply this week was
this:
We had some missionaires from Serbia come to speak
at our wednesday night kids church program. Vera and Danny Kuranji. Vera spoke
to the kids about the shoebox program, where you fill a shoe box with gifts for
less fortunate children in other countries. Millions of boxes are given. She
shared some stories about children she's given boxes and they open them and
exactly what they asked for or needed is inside, some would say coincidence but
i think we all know God has way more to do with it than that. She had a slide
show of pictures of these children, some have no toys, some are blind, some are
orphans, some are disabled...and pictures of children is hospitals with little
bald heads or tubes in their noses. These children get a shoe box...but what
they don't have, among many things, is the ability to have their mom or dad stay
with them. They may come for short visits, but the parents are not able to stay
with their children.
Now i know there are countries that have no
hospitals or very little access to health care or doctors. I know that these
children are fortunate enough to have access to treatment or help. I also
understand that there are children here in the US and Canada that stay in the
hospital with no mom or dad with them...(i've seen them...) but this week while
i was feeling a little bit washed up and weary of why our girl has to deal with
all this stuff, this hit me like a brick. I get to stay with her. I get to
protect her from a lab tech who arrived premature. I get to wipe her tears. I
get to hold her for all of her tests. I get to sleep in bed with her. We get
to eat dinner as a family every night in her room. All of the things that can
be thought of so easliy as...well...sucky circumstances then turn into
opportunities. Things I GET to do. I am even blessed enough that i don't have
to worry about taking time off work!
So while, yea, it's not always fun. It's not
always a breezy walk in the park (even though you may be able to function as it
is). But we live in a place where we have doctors a phone call or visit away, a
hospital with kind nurses with children just like mine at home, child life
people work at the hospital to bring light/fun/joy to crummy circumstances. A
PLACE WHERE WE GET TO STAY WITH OUR KIDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS OR FRIENDS WHEN THEY
ARE SICK.
That's what humbled me and caused me to be
thankful for that hospital. Thankful for that isolation room. Thankful for
those darn lab techs. Thankful for doctors and nurses. Thankful for hospital
beds big enough to fit her and I. Thankful for medicine. Thankful for foam
hockey pucks and rubber toys. Thankful for HEALING from the One and Only.
So that's all for today folks...our next
specialist appt is just before Christmas. So maybe with the next update, you'll
be seeing some of those crazy Hewitt jokes present
chrristmas pictures!
God Bless!
Lacy
