Saturday, February 20, 2010

The Year of The Hospital

In the last 10 months Malachi has made two trips to the ER and I have made three unplanned trips to the hospital, twice to the triage at the L&D unit and today to the ER for something I will not mention for the readers of this blog who've never had a baby and would be grossed out.

I was discharged about three hours after arriving, but one of the times that I was waiting in my room for something (test results, or a Dr to see me, or maybe a transport, who knows, it was mostly waiting) with John, I told him this has been the year of the hospital.

We discussed the timing of everything that has happened over the last 10 months and he helped me realize that the timing of it all has been perfect. It's much better now that John isn't working and in school too. The stress level was already high at times, to add a pregnancy while we lived in Dallas would've been too much.

Malachi's first hospitalization, after his first seizure, happened on May 23rd while we lived in Texas, but he was in MN at the time. They did some blood work and did a CT Scan and didn't find anything. We saw the Pediatrician twice after that seizure and another one, but the majority of the seizure drama happened after we moved to Virginia.

He was hospitalized on June 8th and stayed for one night. He had an over night EEG (and the application of the leeds was quite traumatic - for a while he wouldn't let anyone even touch his head), blood work (more traumatic with repercussions still happening), and an MRI (traumatic for me because he was put under for it - horrible to see your child like that). The whole process was quite an ordeal to find out that he has seizures. There was no conclusive evidence as to why he has seizures, all tests were negative or normal. He was put on medication and hasn't had any seizure activity since.

My first trip to the hospital was on July 16th. It turned out to be a non issue. My second trip is also unmemorable, I don't even know what the date was. Between that trip and my trip to the ER today we did have a planned trip to the hospital. I went in on Thursday the 11th of this month and came home on the 14th with a baby in hand - so this only counts as a great trip!

And that brings us back to today. While discussing things with John I wondered out loud about the reason for the timing of all of this. That's when he convinced me that the timing was best for all. Sure we could have done with out the seizures and all the drama that ensued with them, but better then, then when we lived in Dallas.

With everything good that happened in our lives in the last 10 months, I suppose there has to be a balance, right? What I'm very, very happy to report is that we never let it get to us. Sure there has been some fear during the events, and even after, with the seizures. But it hasn't changed our lives. We're still the same people, the same family (with one more of course), with the same faith (if not a little stronger). If anything the last 10 months has made us stronger. So, for that I'm thankful.

I have to admit though, I'd be happy to go without a trip to the hospital for a very long time.

2 comments:

Randy said...

Life is funny sometimes with how things workout. God only gives us what we can handle. I sometimes forget this.

fsowannabe said...

I completely understand what you've been through. 2009 was the year of the hospital for my family. My daughter had a undiagnosed kidney infection that resulted in multiple seizures in a 36-hour period and eventually led to her being hospitalized for a week. She ended up getting surgery a month later. And then my wife was hospitalized for a week following a mystery object in her abdomen that had the surgeons sharpening scalpels for exploratory surgery. We definitely gave our insurance company a major loss last year.

So I completely understand the stressful hospital year. Luckily my family is healthy now(knock on wood) and, I hope, your family is and continues to be healthy.