Let me start off by saying that for those of you who have the time and strong will to push through my ramblings below, this is more of a journal entry that I felt I needed to share in order to give an update on our little family, and an explanation as to why Kristy hasn't updated our blog recently.
The last week and a half have been some of the most challenging of my life, but yet I find myself more grateful for my family than ever before.
On February 7th, Kristy had a tonsillectomy. Thinking back to when I was young and it seemed as though every kid, but me and my siblings, had their tonsils yanked out and had the luxury of eating ice cream and pudding for at least a week, I was sure that this was going to be a breeze for Kristy and she'd be back on her feet in no time. Little did Kristy or I know, but the procedure is much more difficult for adults to recovery from. In fact, it wasn't till after the surgery took place that I read one of the handouts given to Kristy (after the surgery, of course) saying that working adults should expect to take 1-2 weeks off of work and arrange to have someone care for them for at least the first week. Kristy's mom offered to take care of Kristy and the girls during the recovery period and I would help out on the weekend. This way work and school would not be interrupted for me. As nice as it all sounded, it just didn't work out that way.
About a week before the surgery, Kristy and the girls all developed a cold. We thought it wouldn't be an issue by the time the surgery came around, and Kristy and the girls should all be healed. Well....not quite. All seemed to be going well, but on Friday while I was working I received a text message from Kristy (being our only method of communication since she couldn't talk) stating that she was having a hard time sleeping because of her pain, and Nyah had a fever. I left work early and met up with everyone at Kristy's parents home. Through the use of high tech communication, such as a pen and paper, Kristy told me that she thought it might be easier for her to sleep at home. "Not a problem"...or so I thought. As we were gathering things to come home, Nyah found it appropriate to announce that she had to throw up, and throw up she did; but that was only after a coughing fit that lasted for almost an hour. Being the big girl that she is, Nyah made it to the bathroom and there was no clean up required....yet.
On Sunday, I kept debating on taking Nyah to the doctor and after two hours on non-stop coughing and throwing up I finally did. However, because Kristy was recovering from her surgery and a relapse of her cold, I took Sade with me as well. I don't know how many of you have experienced taking two children under the age of five to the doctor's office (ok...maybe most of you moms have, but dads be warned) and while waiting for two hours one of those children is coughing the entire time while the other seems to have to go to the bathroom every five minutes. Meanwhile you're concerned that while you're in the bathroom the nurse will come and call your name and because you're not there they'll move on to the next twenty patients before coming back to you. Aaahh.....if I wasn't previously losing my hair, I definitely was at this point. So after the stress of the waiting room, we were finally taken to a cold, boring room where we were told to wait for the pediatrician, but that there were four other kids before us so the nurse had no idea how long it would be, but we would have to wait. I'm sure every parent might feel the same way, but I saw those four kids that were called in before us and I'm sorry, but broken bones and small cuts (mind you I've had plenty of those cuts requiring stitches) can wait to be taken care of. I think a child whose been coughing for nearly 4 hours straight should take priority. Then a blessing was given to us. The facilities had closed at some time between our waiting room dance and sitting in this cold boring room. One of the family practitioners, who no longer had any patients, over heard Nyah coughing and decided that she couldn't wait for the pediatrician. To make my story a little shorter, he sent Nyah in for an X-ray and sure enough she had pneumonia.
So now I've got a wife who can't talk, needs her rest, and help turning any food that she wants into soup; I've got a daughter with pneumonia needing to be on a nebulizer (a small breathing machine) every four hours, take antibiotics multiple times during the day, and who can't walk after receiving a shot in each leg that caused her legs to cramp so badly that she couldn't bend them; and then I've got beautiful healthy Sade...but not for long. The following day Sade came down with the flu and ran a fever for the next couple of days.
I should also mention that my mother-in-law, who was going to help, also got sick and because of who I am, there was no way that I could push my sick little family on to her lap and ask her to care for them, so I took most of the week off from both work and school. With both our little girls getting better toward the end of the week Kristy's mom offered to take care of them for a couple of days. Just in time, as Kristy's scabs began to fall off. Because of Kristy's cold, this was a bit of a nightmare causing her to cough so hard that instead of the scabs naturally falling off, they were being ripped off. It was a very bloody process where we were constantly on the edge of going to the emergency room because we were never quite sure how much blood was too much blood. After hours of "ice cream head aches" from gargling plenty of ice water to stop the bleeding, Kristy seems to have finally turned the corner and is now noticeably getting better and able to do more and say more every day.
I can't help but say that after facing all of this and being required to care for every member of my family at the same time I've grown so close to my wife and children and I love them more than ever before. I appreciate all that Kristy does to keep our house clean and in order. She's an amazing person capable of so much and I'm grateful for all that she puts into keeping our family happy and healthy. It'll be nice to have her back. I love my little family so much!
Tuesday was such a nice day that I took the girls and we met up with the Clarks, Ricks, and Wallaces at Disneyland! Everyone was there except for Jeremy and Keenan who both had to go to school. The weather was beautiful and the girls were wonderful. I was a little worried before hand because Sade is going through potty training but she wore her undies and was perfect. I am so proud of her!
The kids loved Tom Sayers Island. We spent a good amount of time running around, wandering through caves and the kids wanted to clime and explore everything.
