4 Floors Apart

Although Matthew has gotten to the point where he likes going to the doctor (huge progress from the screaming days of just a few years past), the dentist is another story. A story that I had never experienced, because Rob always took him to the dentist. It required manpower, which Rob had a little bit more of than me.  Even with Rob's manpower they were only able to do a very cursory dental exam and they had not been successful at taking dental x-rays.  They suspected he might need some cavities filled as well.

Tuesday, November 11th...It had been planned for months that I would take him that morning to Elmbrook Hospital.  He would get sedated so that they could do a thorough cleaning, get x-rays and do any dental work that was needed.  The sedation required that he wouldn't be able to eat or drink after midnight the night before.  I started mentally preparing myself that weekend...there was no way to make this a fun outing, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.  Lord help us if he needs braces!

What I hadn't prepared myself for was the fact that come Tuesday I wouldn't be able to take him to the hospital.  For, in fact on Sunday night I would be admitted to that same hospital myself and be there until Wednesday afternoon.  It started Sunday morning, with a pain that ran from my armpit down to my elbow when I opened the car door. If I kept my arm still it wasn't so bad, but as soon as I moved it, the pain was pretty intense.  I wracked my brain to think of what I had done recently...had I pulled a muscle in my arm? We got into church and I was so cold I couldn't talk my coat off.  I was shaking and couldn't get warm. After church I skipped lunch and went straight to lay down.  At this point I was thinking I must have the flu and this pain in my arm must be what they describe as body aches.  Later that night, my symptoms increased to include my left hand turning red and starting to swell.  A call to the nurse line, a visit to Urgent Care and a phone call to my in-laws to see if they could take me to the hospital and I was admitted finally close to midnight on Sunday night.  It turned out that I had a skin infection...most likely strep that had gotten under the skin.  I ended up needing to stay several days to receive fluids and antibiotics by IV and to allow time for the swelling and pain to go down.

Matthew's appointment was scheduled to be at 10:30 on Tuesday morning.  Seeing as they needed to kill some time since he couldn't eat or drink and because I hadn't seen him since Sunday night Rob brought Matthew to the hospital early to see me.  He was such a sight for sore eyes.  You can't go days without seeing that boy and not miss him...it's humanly impossible.  The way he came bouncing into my hospital room makes me believe he was equally happy to see me too.  And of course he had fun exploring my hospital room.  I felt better getting to see him and having him crawl in my bed and snuggle me before he went down for his procedure.  It comforted me to know that even though I couldn't be with him, I would only be four floors above him.  You know darn well if anything went wrong or if he needed me, I'd hop in the elevator in my hospital gown (dragging my IV's along)!

In Did You Know? I told a little of Matthew's adoption story.  Something that I didn't tell about in that story was that after we were matched with Matthew, but before we were scheduled to travel we got news from China that Matthew was in the hospital.  He had been fed contaminated formula and had developed kidney stones.  It was hard to be so far away from him...such a helpless feeling!  At the time I would have done anything to have been just four floors apart!