Week 20 - Decisions

Week 20 - Picture

What a crazy couple days. In the last week we dealt with tornadoes, flooding, company visiting, a sick baby, a trip to the ER, and a canceled graduation ceremony. It was nice having company in town, but the rest of it really worked to wear me and Kimbre out. We spent the majority of Sunday morning and afternoon just trying to catch up on our sleep.

  

That's the way the life goes sometimes though. Nothing else you can do but shake your head and try to learn something from it. What this all taught me is that sometimes, the decisions that you have to make as a parent may have no right answer. For example, Thursday morning Jay woke up with a fever. With family and friends set to arrive that evening, the timing could not have been worse. Although the fever was not high enough to be immediately alarming, it was also not low enough to feel fully confident that we should ride it out either. In the end, we made the decision to take him to his pediatrician. Since he was not showing any other symptoms besides the fever and fussiness, she was not able to determine what was causing his illness and recommended that we take him to the ER just to be safe. This was really disappointing, because it not only meant that we would have to miss out on going to dinner with our guests who had just arrived, it also meant that we would have to pay $300 dollars in an insurance copay for the privilege of getting to spend the rest of our evening surrounded by other sick people with conditions that had the potential to make the situation worse. With how much I had been looking forward to the weekend's events, you can imagine my frustration and disappointment with the situation. 

In the end, it turned out the trip was not even needed. By the time we got to see a doctor, Jay's fever has gone down dramatically on its own. We left the hospital with a prescription for ear infection medicine. Still, it was the only decision that we could make it. I'm not sure I would've been able to live with myself if my desire to not miss out on a night with my family and friends ended up costing me my son's well-being. So even though it ended up being the wrong decision, there was really no alternative.

Luckily, the world did not stop turning. Although the ceremony that I was supposed to be recognized on Friday was canceled due to weather, a few last-minute changes still allowed me to be recognized on Saturday morning. I still got to go to dinner with my friends and Family, and I still got to hold my son and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment that comes with the achieving a long-term goal of mine. Life doesn't always go how you plan but things generally work themselves out in the end.