By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.
Whoever coined the phrase "home sweet home" really knew what they were talking about. Home is family and comfort. It's the place you want to go back to. You really appreciate the "comforts of home" when you leave it for awhile. This became glaringly obvious to me after our stay at the hospital.
I missed my husband. I missed my kids, and I missed us all being a family at home. I even missed the little things like eating together at regular times instead of midnight runs to the cafeteria for coffee and whatever was left over. I missed having my own private bathroom. On the pediatric floor at that time there was only one bathroom with one toilet for both men and women! Imagine the line in the morning to brush your teeth. I especially missed my bed. At the hospital I slept in a chair which really wasn't sleeping at all.
Here we go. Now we can get back to our normal, ordinary, chaotic life with toddlers. There is just one problem. Christopher's symptoms have not gone away. In fact they are getting worse. I think he is losing weight. I know something is wrong. Feeding him has become a real challenge. He doesn't want to eat. Apparently he is going to be a future gymnast because when I try to feed him he does a back bend that I'm sure would rate a perfect "10" at the Olympics.
I check my calendar to see when his follow-up appointment is with the surgeon, but it still is days away. I decide to call the pediatrician for an appointment. I gather up the "troops" in the minivan and head off to the doctor's office.
The doctor examined him, weighed him, asked me a bunch of questions, and then came to the shocking conclusion that he had...wait for it...the flu. I tried to explain to him that Christopher was refusing to eat, and that anything he did eat he projectile vomited across the room. The doctor's answer- he has the flu. I left the pediatrician's office frustrated and worried.
It got to the point when I called the pediatrician's office every morning that they recognized my voice even before I identified who I was. I'm sure they were getting frustrated and worried about me by this point, but Christopher was not getting better.
We visited the pediatrician's office again where I told him that Christopher was hardly eating at all, his weight was down, we were using beach towels as burp rags, and we needed help NOW! The doctor could see that I was becoming increasingly agitated, so he asked me to feed Christopher in front of him. What was I thinking at that point? I was thinking that Christopher should perform his little projectile vomiting trick all over the front of the doctor's white lab coat. Did I mention how frustrated and worried I was? Well, add desperate to that list. I just wanted that doctor to understand what was going on and help my son, NOW!
Christopher didn't vomit all over the doctor, but he did do his back bend trick. He spit up a little, so the doctor immediately seized on the point that that was proof that it just "looked like a lot". I showed him the beach towel I was using as a burp rag, but he was unimpressed. Okay, but what about his weight? I asked the doctor if he was concerned about the fact that Christopher was losing weight? Aren't babies supposed to gain weight, not lose it? The pediatrician told me that he wasn't surprised that Christopher was losing weight due to the fact that he had the flu! He told me to go home, be patient, and call him if things didn't clear up in a day or so. I took that part of his advice to heart. Believe me! I called him alright, everyday!
If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can pray like this:
More tomorrow...
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