Little blessings.......a hernia and conjunctivitis with an ear infection

All of you moms are taking note to stay away from the Sheen family, right? And where are the little blessings in a list like that? I'll tell you!

Hernia - We came home from church on Sunday expecting a relaxing day and hopefully an eventless week! HAHAHAHAHAHA - yeah right! So Jakey was outside jumping on the trampoline and came inside CRYING!! His stomach hurt - so I took him to see if he needed to go to the bathroom (sorry - but a necessary detail!). I look down as he's sitting on the pot and see a HUGE bump - if you can even call it that. Right where his abdomen and upper thigh meet, he had a "bump" the size of 3/4 of a roll of quarters. And he was in PAIN - serious pain. What to do? So I run him to the ER and on my way, leave a message for the on-call nurse. The ER was seriously backed up - so we had to wait and wait and wait - while my little guy was bent over in pain.

So we've been there for about 45 minutes and Troy calls for an update. So I go outside to take the call and Jakey - who hasn't been able to stand or walk - jumps down from my arms and says "It's all gone - I feel better." Just then the on-call nurse calls and says we can go home and just go see the Dr. in the morning.

We head to the Dr. in the morning and find (as I did on the internet when I got home the night before) that it's a hernia. So we have to take Jakey to see a pediatric general surgeon. Really - I was ok with that..................until I remembered a letter I got from ALL of the pediatric general surgeons in Austin a month before, saying that they were dropping our insurance!! WONDERFUL. They said we'd have to pay the out-of-network prices or go to Temple or San Antonio to find a surgeon that takes our insurance. Goodness!! What drama!

So where were the little blessings you ask? Well how about the fact that it happened on a Sunday when Troy was home!! What if I had had to take all 3 kids to the ER. And how about the fact that the hernia just went away before we paid the $75 ER fee? And we're waiting to see if this one pans out..........but the surgeons in Temple MIGHT make office visits at the new Scott and White campus in Round Rock!! That would be even better than going to Dell Childrens! Keep your fingers crossed for us on that one!! See - little blessings!

Conjunctivitis and ear infection - So as I put Zachy to bed on Tuesday night - I notice LOTS of yucky gunk (technical terms) in his eye! Great! I had already been to the ER and Dr already that week (not to mention my Dr that morning)! So I see what it looks like the next morning - and yeah - the kids needs medicine. Now I'm not a huge proponent of antibiotics - I try to not give medicine to my kiddos. But for something so contagious - do you have a choice?

So I take Zachy in - while Troy took the boys to lunch. The Dr. looks at his eye and says - yeah, conjunctivitis. And then he does his normal check-up and lo and behold, finds a WHOPPER of an ear infections. Don't kids usually show signs of an ear infection - like pulling at their ear or crying in pain at night? Not Zachy - what a champ!! But this ear infection was the "angry, red and thick, yellowy mucous" kind. Again - I don't like anti-biotics - and neither does our Dr thank goodness - but he said with this one we risked a perforated ear drum or hearing loss. So - OK, fine - now the kid's on 2 antibiotics - what can you do? At least he hasn't been on one in over a year!!

Again - where are the little blessings? Well - had Zachy not gotten conjunctivitis and had I not needed more of the eye ointment/drops - I wouldn't have taken him into the Dr and we wouldn't have found the ear infection - given what a CHAMP my little Zachy is!!

My life as a mom sure isn't easy - and there are NEVER relaxing, eventless weeks (not even days) - but I know things could be worse. And I know I need to recognize the little blessings that are there so often in my life that make my life just a little bit easier!!