Good morning! I hope each one of you had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas with the ones you love most. Besides a little bout with mastitis, we enjoyed several Christmas celebrations over the last week, and are now onto our final Christmas gift: a ski trip. Before we get on the road, I want to share the reason we were praising the Lord yesterday- and every day.
Yesterday we woke up and started packing for our ski trip with my family. We also did this on December 28th, 2013. Yesterday’s packing brought so many different emotions: we were scared, the memories were horrific, but most all were extremely thankful to have a healthy, smart, energetic, caring and vocal two year old.
December 28th, 2013 changed our world. We were packing for Sweet Pea’s first ski trip, our Christmas gift from my Mom and Thom. I will never forget the events, the feelings, and the fear that overwhelmed me. I was in our hallway linen closet grabbing Claire’s bathroom essentials when I looked to my left and my sweet one year old was on the ground… lifeless. I picked her up, ran to the kitchen and screamed, “there is something wrong with her,” over and over. Josh called 9-1-1 while I performed CPR on our sweet daughter. Performing CPR on your own child is something I don’t wish upon anyone and pray I never have to do again.
The ambulance came, they assured us she was breathing and we heard her heart and we took off for Riley Children’s Hospital. Once we arrived to the hospital a million tests were run and all I could think of was the very worst. I have never prayed so hard in my life. I was terrified I was going to lose my daughter.
The tests determined Sweet Pea had a seizure and they were going to monitor us overnight… until she had another seizure. After her second seizure we were move to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. I remember riding up to the floor, getting in the hospital crib bed with Sweet Pea, looking into the other rooms and thinking and screaming out loud, “you are taking us to the place where parents leave without their children.” I was terrified.
Praise the Lord, our situation was different, we got to go home the next day with our Sweet Pea. She was put on seizure medication with no answers as to why the seizures happened. She had one more on January 21st, 2014, and has not had one since. We are blessed, our prayers have been answered.
Since that scary day one year ago, our lives have changed. This experience was humbling. There is so much in life we take for granted: our health, the laughs & cries of our children,just being together, and the incredible care of the doctors and nurses. We are not perfect, we still slip back into our old ways and we have to remind ourselves that this life is truly a gift.
We pray more. We check on our sleeping daughter each night, give her a kiss and thank God for her life. We sometimes have flashbacks and become fearful, but remember that our God is faithful.
Each day and night we give our two year old daughter seizure medicine and look forward to the day when this is no longer a part of our routine. Until then, we continue to pray, not just for her, but for all the children and families at Riley Hospital.
We will never forget this day or the range of feelings we felt. We will forever be grateful for all the people that helped us during the this time: friends, family, acquaintances that offered their prayers over social media, and the doctors & nurses. Just as we did this year, we hope to always take this day to remember and thank the hospital staff and to support and pray for the current families in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
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