Part I: Anson's Croup
I had a big Young Women In Excellence parent night to decorate for on Wednesday so I was focused on that. I had the kids with me at Church to decorate even though they had coughs and Blake came to the building to help with a musical number for the program. Anson's breathing and coughing became worse and worse throughout the evening and I missed most of the program before sending Blake home with Anson. When I finally got home I took him into a steamy bathroom to play, then into the cold night air and then put Anson to bed. I read 3 reference books about how to help him. All three books pointed to Croup and told me to call the doctor NOW. (Meanwhile Blake had put himself to bed. In many ways Blake is a perfect husband, but good luck waking that man up once his head hits the pillow...) I called the advice nurse who told me to try steam again for 20 minutes and take him to ER if that didn't help. Anson had woken up in the meantime, I took him into the steamy bathroom and he freaked out so much his crying made his croupy breathing worse and his lips started turning blue. Forget steam, I took him to the ER at 11PM and was there until 3:15AM. Not fun at all. Even taking a temperature and the stethoscope were traumatic for the little guy, let alone the oxygenation monitor, breathing treatments and the other noises going on. Not only was it stressful for him, but he also had little sleep that day which made him all the worse to soothe. There was actually a point where he kept trying to get off the bed and run away.
Somewhere around 3AM in an attempt to distract him we were looking at pictures of family on my phone and I decided to take a picture of us. When he saw our faces in the camera's phone he started saying "Hi Mama. Hi Mama." and waving "I-love-you." I love the picture not because that night was magic or because we look great, but because it's evidence of his sweet nature even when he's so sick and in such a confusing place.
That morning Anson & I both slept until noon (a BIG thanks to my Mom for coming to the house and watching Claire from when Blake had to leave in the morning for work so that I could sleep). I woke up to a voice message from the Pediatrician's office asking to call them. I called and ended up with the soonest appointment at 2:15PM. I expected to just be checked out, talk about the night before and go home. However, his breathing was still noisy and the term that I heard all the night before was still coming up: "Strider". They kept us there for another couple treatments and monitoring until past 5:30PM.
Poor Claire was happy to join this time thinking she could tell everyone she was sick, too, and get a teddy bear like the ER nurses gave Anson the night before. She was all happy & talkative at the doctor office until the treatments started. Anson was crying and I was confining him to stay still. I looked over to Claire on the other side of the room who was crouched into the table next to her hiding her head in her hands and crying saying she was scared! I offered to hold her and hug her while I was holding Anson but she didn't want to come anywhere near us. So sad! It was tense. I felt helpless. Finally I was able to explain the mist was just like a cloud. She had recently seen dry ice for Halloween and understood that "clouds" were safe so immediately perked up with relief that it was just a cloud Anson had to breath in. Phew! Before the second treatment the doctor told me if it wasn't effective they'd send us back to ER and possibly have to transfer us to the hospital in Santa Clara. I called my dad & Blake and asked them to come give Anson a
priesthood blessing. They did. Anson folded his hands for the blessing even though no one told him to and no one else was folding their arms. (I'm amazed he recognized the reverence needed for the moment since he's so young.) He freaked out when the nurse came in during the blessing, but after she left he took the final treatment calmly and actually fell asleep during it - which made for calm inhaling! Such a difference from all the other treatments up until that point! This final treatment was also the most effective he'd had of all of them. His breathing quieted down afterward and even the doctor was impressed at the sudden improvement. The doctor told us we could go home to monitor ourselves. I'm so thankful for the blessing. I really think if we had done that sooner we would have been home sooner. It was still a rough few days at home but things today are finally back to normal. (Thankfully!)
Part II: Claire's FHE Activity
Tonight I was preparing a mini-lesson for
Family Home Evening (FHE). Claire sat up next to me at the desk and announced she was going to make the activity for FHE. "I'm going to draw a picture and you will circle the differences," she said. This is one of her favorite activities to do in her
Friend magazine (
online version here) so I was excited to see what she would come up with.
Here is her drawing.
After the lesson she reminded us she had the activity. Sat in the chair in front of Blake and me, explained how the activity would work and then Blake & I took turns identifying things that were different on each side of the picture. Eye color. Nose shape. Ball size. Arm length.... Claire carefully said yes or no and circled the correct differences.
Not only am I excited that she volunteered to help, but that she was able to re-create something that she really loves to do and share that with us. (She's getting pretty good at telling us what to do, too.... And THAT's only cute sometimes.) ;)
She was very proud of her successful activity and so were we!
