Desert Diaries: Disaster Easter

For Easter this year, we decided to go to Phoenix on the Friday before to spend the night with Grandparents and decorate Easter eggs with the cousins.

Dave did not go with us because of work and because he had also come down with the flu and was very sick. All went well with the decorating, however, Reese got a fever during the night. We went throught the next day just letting her rest and had plans to head home that evening. When I called Dave to let him know, he consulted a book that told us we should call the doctor because of her age (under two months). When I called the on-call doctor, she told us to go straight to the ER! Noah stayed with my dad while my mom and I went to the emergency room with Reese.

Because of her age, they did not make us wait long and when we got into the room, they imformed us that they were going to have to do several tests to find the source of the fever and rule out everything they could. They drew blood, gave her IV fluids and antibiotics (as a precaution), took x-rays (for pneumonia), did a catheter for a urine sample, took a nose swab and did a spinal tap (to test for menangitis)! It was so awful to see her go through all of that! They then sent us by ambulance to another hospital that had pediatric rooms, where we stayed for two nights while they waited for the menangitis culture to develop and gave her IV antibiotics the whole time. In the end, they determined she had gotten the flu from her father and sent us home with Tylenol and rest! I have had such a hard time letting go of the fact that I put her through all of that for nothing. I know that if she had had something more serious I never would have forgiven myself for not taking her to the hospital. It's a hard situation. I am so thankful that it was not something worse and I pray that we all stay healthy for awhile now.

Thankfully, we have such wonderful help around us. Parents that take care of Noah and drive from Tucson to Phoenix to get him home for school, other parents that stay with Reese and I in the hospital and take care of us when we come home sick, neighbors that take Noah to school and pick him up and friends who fill in for Dave when he can't preach. It was a wonderful Easter lesson in appreciation, humility and extreme gratitude that we will never be able to repay.