Under the {Summer} Weather

Oh summer, how I love thee!  You're filled with grilling and swimming, corn-on-the-cob, mountains of watermelon...and strep throat. 

Can you even believe that the middle of July had three of our four littles down with a nasty bug? I truly thought that it was darn near impossible to come down with the funk while sunflowers are in bloom and the grass requires weekly cutting. But alas, it's not, as my pediatrician informed me while he collected my co-pays and wrote out prescriptions for Amoxicillian. He also kindly told me that even a tonsillectomy doesn't leave you exempt-to which I swallowed hard and then preceded to bath in hand sanitizer. Thankfully, Jer and I, as well as Gracie Girl managed to stay unscathed and the boys are now finished with their medicine and back to their old selves. And we are hoping *and praying* that the last of it is gone with the toothbrushes we threw out!

Unfortunately, a raw throat wasn't the only thing our Judah Boy came down with. Monday morning found him sick as a dog and as a result he ended up having a seizure {his second in the last four months}. While his first one was a couple of months ago at his Mimi and Pop's {after he slipped and hit his head while washing his hands in the bathroom}, this one happened here at home while I was alone with the kids. And while it could have gone a million different ways, the Lord graciously worked it out so that the other three kids were completely safe and QUIET while I was on the phone with 911 and attending to Judah. In fact, my total worrier and fearful boy Benny at one point looked right into the eyes of his terrified momma and calmly said, "Momma. Just call the ambulance." Sweet boy! After about twelve minutes, the fire department and rescue team arrived and proceeded to take his vitals and get him hooked up to oxygen and an IV. Although I was completely oblivious to the look of concern on Ben and Abe's faces, in a stroke of genius moment, one of the firemen took them outside for a tour of the fire truck {complete with horn honking and sirens} and then pushed them on the swings until things weren't so scary. A few minutes later, the paramedics arrived and tried to load him up to transport him to the hospital downtown, but another firefighter kindly told them that we'd be waiting for Jer to get home so I could ride with Judah in the ambulance. Those men must have been daddies, huh?! Oddly enough, the same paramedic who transported Judah to the hospital the last time, just happened to be doing a rotation in the East Mountains and was dispatched to our house this time. We had a total, "I know you!" moment right after she arrived and it was nice because the laugh sort of broke the tension and made things a bit more comfortable. Plus she worked her skills at the ER and got us right in and seen right away.

 

Once we were in a room, Judah basically crashed out. So much so that his nurse was able to give him medicine WITHOUT WAKING HIM UP. Seriously, the boy was dead to the world. After about 5 hours of monitoring, two Subway sandwiches for mom and dad, a Gracie blow-out of epic proportions, a dose of Motrin, a dose of anti-nausea medicine, and 16 oz. of apple juice, our boy was awake, completely irked with his blood pressure cuff, and using the potty down the hall {did I mention he POTTY TRAINED through all of this??} Soon the ER doc sent us on our way with orders to follow up with the Pediatrician, a prescription for Strep, and very grumpy boy. As soon as we got back to Mimi's to pick up B&A, however, his mood had changed as he was the star-of-the-car. A very curious Benny loudly asked, "Bubbas! Tell us about the ambulance!" To which Ju replied, "It-had-yites {lights}!" A few minutes later, he was chomping on a slice of pizza and drinking a Gatorade while we waited for his prescription to be filled. Such a wild day! 

We did follow up with the pediatrician the next day {which could be a blog entitled, "Sarah takes three sick kids and a nursing infant to the doctor's office-ALONE-sits in an examining room for an hour and forty minutes-during lunch time-and then cries the entire way home!"} and he referred us to a Pediatric Neurologist to have an EEG done. So for now we wait...and pray that these were just two isolated incidences...and bake those awesome firefighters a big ol' plate of cookies.