Is My Life Normal?...At All????
When it comes to the question of what is "the norm" in any given family for hospital stays, doctor's visits, broken bones, rare diseases, mystery illnesses and near death experiences, I don't think I have a good grip on it!
If you read my Bio Page, you will see that I've had my share of all of the above, personally and in my family. I'm afraid though, that the brief discription found there does not begin to cover it all, nor did it all end when I stopped writing that portion of my Bio.
I thought a brief update would be fun for everyone. Although this may read like fiction, all I can say is fiction is not this entertaining!
Let's start with my oldest Daughter Mi Mi. She has had MRSA, a serious Staff infection a.k.a. Flesh Eating Bacteria 3 times, yes THREE times in the last year. The most recent one being just a month or so ago when she was 5 months pregnant! She was of course hospitalized with a pik line which is an I.V. that feeds a very strong antibiotic directly into the heart. She also developed pneumonia due to her lowered immunity. Who ever gets this kind of crap once, let alone 3 times, in their whole life? But three times in a year?!! Insanity! She will be on strong medications for quite a while but she is out of the hospital and doing well, and so is her baby, so I can make jokes about it all now.
While I enjoyed time spent with her in the hospital blowing up countless rubber gloves, writing dirty jokes for the nurses on her whiteboard and smuggling in the necessary decadant frozen yogurt sundae to aid in her recovery, I also had another sick child at home.
Maya, my youngest child at almost 15, picked up Mononucleosis from her best friend! While her resistance was down she also enjoyed a bout of bronchitis. Three weeks later now, she is having a relapse! Yay! More medical experience for me! She is a definite over achiever so the toughest thing about her being sick is having to tackle her when she tries to sneak off to school. She's been so sick and weak lately that I can just blow on her and she'll fall over so it's easier to make her rest. Due to some chronic health conditions she enjoys, the school has a "504 Contract" on her. It's an immensely valuable program for kids that have some special needs due to physical or emotional conditions that may effect their work or attendance.
One of her health conditions is chronic clumsiness. She has broken 7 bones in the last 4 years alone! Nope, no osteoporosis. Just a clutz. She fell off of a step ladder in my closet trying to steal my clothes and broke her arm. She fell off of her platform shoes at school and broke her ankle. she fell off a skateboard and broke her arm...TWO separate times! Her 4 year old cousin took a flying leap at her and tackled her at the knees, from the side and "broke" her knee and she broke her arm (again) diving (for fun) across benches in the locker room at school and "flew just like Superman" she tells me, until she crashed into the lockers on the other side. She also enjoyed the benefit of a concussion on that one! As you can tell, she's an immense source of joy and entertainment for me. I owe a large part of my "in home medical degree" to her!
In the mean time, my 22 year old son Carson has been doing missionary work in the jungle in Guadalajara. As we all know, it's a wonderful place to experience exotic foods and tropical parasites! Yes, he's enjoyed TWO lovely stays in the sanitarily challenged hospitals in Mexico.
Oh yes, there's more. There's always more around here, but I'm sure you get the point. Here's the good part. I'm only partially kidding when I say I have an In Home Medical Degree (or I.H.M.D. if you prefer). I have dealt with so much illness myself and with my kids that it's been quite the education. The trick is, ask lots of questions. Never take a doctors word as gospel. Get second opinions. Do your own research. In this era of Internet information, virtually anything you need to know is at your fingertips! Only take medicine when it is absolutely necessary. Never stay in a hospital any longer than you absolutely have to...especially in Mexico.
Also, be your children's best advocate. Don't let the schools dictate your child's health care. Immunize only if you have researched it and you feel it's best for your child. No, you do NOT have to immunize your child. That is a fallacy! If your child is ill, especially for a prolonged period of time, make sure they have the same benefits of a public education that any other child has. If your child is chronically ill in ANY way and you live in the state of California, look into a 504 Plan. Other states have similar plans. Do your homework! It's worth it...and so are your children.
But when all is said and done, the best advice I have is to keep smiling and laugh whenever you can! It's so much better than moping around with a long face, feeling sorry for yourself and that doesn't help the situation anyway! Besides, when you laugh in the face of adversity, it makes people think you've lost your mind and that's hysterical!
