*I'm part of a writing group. A few months ago one of the topics we were asked to write about was "A Story Our Children Should Know." Below is the story I wrote.
It’s funny how fast your children's childhoods can pass in a blink of an eye. There are certain seasons you think you’ll never forget but time marches on and memories fade. Some seasons you try to forget and for me it was years filled with illnesses, stitches, E.R. visits, surgeries and even hospitalizations. . My son, Jay, who is now 18 wins the prize as being my most sickly child. However, Nick, my 14 year old, although wasn’t as sickly but more injury prone which is demonstrated by his yearly mother loads of poison ivy prompting doctor visits and steroid injections.
During Jay’s first year of life he battled ear infections, high fevers and what seemed to be a runny nose that never stopped dripping. He endured five ear infections within three months and when he was eleven months old he had surgery and got ear tubes. I was hoping the tubes would cure a lot of the issues he was having but as we headed into winter he was so sick his pediatrician thought Jay should be tested for cystic fibrosis. Thankfully he didn’t have it. When Jay was two he used his nightlight as a step ladder in order to see a tractor. He cut his foot which prompted our first trip to the E.R. There was also the time he got his fingers caught in an elevator door and the time he grabbed my hot curling iron, a battle scar he still sports today.
When Jay was four and Nick was six months old Jay got walking pneumonia and Nick got RSV. I remember I spent days going back and forth between Jay and Nick’s rooms giving them nebulizer treatments. Eventually they got better, however, Nick got RSV again two years later while I battled an awful case of fifth disease. This bout of RSV wasn’t as friendly - of course it wasn’t, it never is when mom is also sick. Fifth disease was odd because for me I would run a fever at night but be fine during the day so I was still working. I would work all day, come home, run a fever and then have to sit outside with Nick in the cold because the cold helped silence his cough and calmed him down. Of course it couldn’t have been a steaming shower! You might wonder where my husband was in all this. While he is instrumental in building the boys into who they are today, he was pretty much worthless when it came to illness and small children.
When Jay was in second grade he had his tonsils and adenoids out which was a turning point for him. He had so many issues with strep throat that after he had his tonsils and adenoids out it’s pretty fair to say he rarely missed any school after that, other than the occasional stomach flu. When he entered high school and played football and basketball he suffered two concussions. It was after the second concussion we decided his football career was over.
Respiratory issues aside we’ve also had our fill of vomit in our house. In December 2007 my niece, Lauren, was born. She was a preemie and remained in the Nic-U while the rest of my extended family spent Christmas Eve together. Around 2 a.m. on Christmas morning I remember the dreaded sound of “I’m a child getting ready to barf” as Jay ran down the steps in order to make it just in time to our bedroom as he proceeded to throw up all over our carpet. I remember as we got him cleaned up he walked past the Christmas tree which had presents underneath it and in the most pitiful voice said, “Boy, that Santa sure got here fast.” I was horrified because we had been with my sister all evening. If we exposed her to the flu she could not visit Lauren. The flu ended up going through all of us that December but thankfully never hit my sister.
In 2013 we went to TN on vacation. Nick ended up getting dehydrated our first day and got a migraine headache and threw up. It was scary but thankfully he was okay. It was the next summer in TN when the boys got some kind of flu bug and they spent our last night bent over a toliet. I would run back and forth between the boys improvising with a waste basket a few times. In the morning I left a $10 bill on the counter for the cabin owner to buy a new waste basket since my boys had annihilated hers. Somehow we made it home with just a few throw up stops during the 10 hour drive. We made it home just in time for Mike to start complaining about his stomach. It hit me 2 days later. Good times.
Then there was the summer when Nick was 3 and Jay was 7. As older brothers often do, Jay was terrorizing Nick and Nick thought he might be able to get away by jumping through a window. That Nick can be resourceful when he wants to be but I’m not sure how he thought he would jump through the window but he tried. He ended up shattering the window and cutting his arm which by the grace of God required no stitches. This incident happened on Mike’s watch and Mike said when he heard the glass shatter Nick was barefoot. Mike immediately told Nick not to move, knowing he’d cut his feet. Nick froze. Although Mike fell short in dealing with sick kids, his effectiveness in getting the boys to listen was always top notch.
When Jay was in third grade he and his dad got into a rough and tumble wrestling match on the floor. While wrestling Mike accidentally rolled onto Jay’s finger, breaking it. What was innocent and playful fun between father and son turned into an interrogation from doctors and nurses. It got even worse when Jay’s finger didn’t heal and an infection developed. Surgery was performed and an infectious disease doctor had to be consulted. After two days in the hospital and having to endure being asked about 100 times how Jay broke his finger, we were finally released to go home without a D.C.F.S. escort.
My children were probably not any sicker or more injury prone than any other kid. After all they are boys. They did survive their childhoods and so did I, which oftentimes as a full time working mother who had a one hour daily commute was kind of a small miracle. I choose this topic as a story they should know because one day - God willing - they will be a parent and when you’re in the trenches with your kids, no matter what is it, you don’t ever think you’ll get out of it but you do. It’s a matter of moving forward, seeing the humor in things and knowing that eventually you will get on the other side of it.
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