I should have known this Christmas was going to be a trying one about a week before Christmas Day. My wife, Kelli, woke up sick on Tuesday morning and called in to work. After things did not get better, she went to the doctor. Merry Christmas, you have the flu! Wednesday night my daughter, Avery, woke up in the middle of the night sick with a fever.
For the next few days I tried to avoid my family, as my wife insisted, and keep myself from getting sick as well. As Friday rolled around everyone seemed to be improving. We went to my father-in-law’s house for Christmas Eve and had a good time. Christmas morning Avery woke up feeling pretty crummy. I was excited to see my 3 year old dig into everything that “Santa” had brought her. No such luck. She opened all of her presents and looked bored or disapointed throughout most of the time. She started feeling better and later in the morning we went to my parents for Christmas Day, where Kelli spent half the time in bed.
On the way back home (before making the evening trip to my mother-in-law’s house) Avery starting coughing really bad and could not stop. She started telling us she couldn’t breathe. Thankfully, we had her nebulizer with us and the car has an electric outlet. Unfortunately, the nebulizer was too much for the outlet and it would run no longer than about 10 seconds at time before having to be shut off and turned back on a couple of times. During this process we are trying to keep Avery awake as she told us, “I can’t keep her eyes open.” About that time I looked back and saw her eyes starting to roll back into her head; she really couldn’t breathe. It takes a lot to freak my out, I am definitely the calm parent, but his most assuredly got my juices flowing. A couple of run red lights and speed infractions later, we arrived at the emergency room.
On the 10 minute ride the hospital Avery managed to cough up a HUGE ball of mucus. Yes, my wife had a handful of snot. Merry Christmas again! She seemed to be breathing better and coming around but we took her in for observation anyway. They checked her out and said all was fine, but recommended using the nebulizer more often. So, we finally made it home and Avery crashed pretty hard for about an hour and a half. Everyone, though tired, seemed to be doing pretty good, so we decide to make the short trip to Nana’s house. We all have a good time and start the trip home when… You guessed it, the coughing starts back up. The same scenario from earlier in the day flares up and we start heading back to the hospital, rather reluctantly on my part. We got her to cough another big ball of stuff out and got in touch with her pediatrician. He didn’t think there was an reason to go back to the hospital either and told us how to clear things up. The rest of the night went smoothly. On Tuesday she went to the doctor for her follow up where he said he believed that she had bronchitis, coupled with some other type infection which caused the increased production of mucus, coupled with an asthma attack. Ah, the joys of parenthood. And then on Sunday, we received even more great news. My grandmother was admitted in the hospital with congestive heart failure. She is doing better and will hopefully be back home this weekend.
All in all, we managed to have a pretty good Christmas despite all of the craziness. Though there were a couple of trips to the hospital involved, God blessed us. He took care of everyone and reminded us what Christmas is truly about. It’s the day we remember what God did by sending his only son, Jesus, to this earth in a plan to die for our sins. Though Santa Claus if fun for the kids, I’m personally glad that my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the one that is real.