This has been a horrible, horrible week for our family.  Earlier this week Teagan was rushed to the ER for breathing issues (full story in my post below).  We’ve been struggling to keep Taryn well enough to have surgery next week.  It was just supposed to be to have her tonsils and adenoids removed but through the entire nightmare that is surgery pre-op workups, blood work, audiology exams, cultures, etc., we found out the surgery will be more extensive that we initially hoped.  Her ENT said this is one of the worst cases she’s seen in a very long time, her adenoids are so huge they are all but blocking off the area behind her nose.  Her tonsils are almost touching each other and she’s having trouble with sleep apnea.  She will also need to have tubes put in her ears due to a problem with her eardrums, which totally took us by surprise because she’s only had one ear infection her entire life.  She also has a sinus condition that has resulted in infectious pneumonia in her sinus cavities.  I didn’t even know such a thing could happen.  We literally had something going on every day this week, a dr. appt for one of the kids, blood work, cultures, pre-op appts.  At one of those appointments we found out that one of Teagan’s tubes is dislodged in his ear and he’ll need to have another out patient surgery very soon to get it fixed again.  Annnnnnnd, I found out I have a double eye infection….great.  I’ve just had all of these thoughts of what am I doing wrong?  Where am I failing as a mother that I cannot keep my children well?

Then, today I was watching my friends daughter because her son needed to go to the hospital for a few tests.  After a few errands I decided to pick up lunch and take the kids to the park to play.  While there Taryn fell off the playground equipment and was seriously hurt.  She broke two bones in her right arm but it’s pretty bad.  Especially for only falling about 2.5 feet to the ground.  We thought after the ambulance arrived that she may have hurt her head or neck as well (she was turning blue).  I didn’t see her fall, my back was turned chasing teagan about 20 feet away.  It turns out her little body was just in shock out of pain and fear.  She was afraid the firemen were going to take her away from me when she heard the sirens coming 🙁  We were transferred by ambulance to Children’s Dell and after a very long day of doctors, scan’s, ortho’s putting bones back together, heavy sedation, etc., we just made it home.  We’re just thanking God she wasn’t more seriously injured and that the orthopedic surgeon was able to do his work from the outside of her body.  Amazing what he did for our daughter tonight, we were in shock at the way he manipulated her body and put it back together again.  When he started her forearm was a semi-circle with breaks right in the middle of the bones.  By the time he was done, looking at the after x-rays, you’d never know what it looked like just a few hours before.

One of the scariest days of my life.  She’s ok, but in a lot of pain and will be in a cast from her palm to halfway up between her elbow and shoulder for a minimum of 4 weeks.  The hard part is that for the next 72 hours, she has to keep her entire arm up above her heart to avoid swelling at the break points in the bones.  No easy task for a 4 year old.  In fact she’s sleeping with her arm in a large blue swiss cheese looking foam thing to keep her arm and fingers pointed toward the ceiling.  I don’t know what we are going to do about her surgery, we may consider moving it because it just seems too unfair to subject her to so much pain in just 4 days time.

And to the one other mom at the park this afternoon…..I’m sure you’ll never read this as you have no clue who we are….but thank you.  Thank you for running to her when she fell and for calling out to me.  Thank you for trying to calm me down and think rationally long enough to call 911.  Thank you for running to the end of the park with your 2 children plus 2 more to see the name on the street sign so the 911 operator could direct the emergency workers.  Thank you for chasing the other two children with me when I couldn’t.  Thank you for carrying Teagan on your hip while I tended to Taryn as they put her on a stretcher.  Thank you for not looking at me like I am a horrible mother when I really felt like one.  Thank you for being one of my angels today, I wish I could thank you in person, but I didn’t catch your name.

And a huge thank you to our dear friends, Alli and Mike, who take our children on a moments notice (literally, way to get there quick Mike!), love our kids as your own and support us with your friendship.  I don’t know what we would do without you guys.

This, very tired, momma is off to bed….