It's all routine in this house.......

Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they're going to catch you in next. ~Franklin P. Jones

Recently, I watched my wedding video.  At a wedding shower, I claimed I wanted 5 kids and wanted to own a flower shop.  Wow!  Was I wrong about both of those things?  For starters, I know nothing about flowers or plants, my thumb is black.  And secondly, 5 kids.....what was I thinking?

I guess what I should have been was an orthopaedic doctor or a doctor period but I think that involves Math and you all know how I feel about Math!  These kids have tested my patience but they have tested my resolve.....let me give you the run down.

All three were born with a dimple at the end of their spines that had to be ultrasound.  All three were cleared.

Trevette was healthy until he was 18 months of age and then BAM he was sick.  2 years of intensive medical care concluded he had full blown asthma.  Today it's not an issue.

Trevette had 2 surgeries to remove his adenoids and tonsils.  One additional surgery repaired numerous cavities he had caused by allergy medicine.

Guthrie spent the first 4 hours of his life in the NICU. He did not cry when he was born. Now that I know him it may have been that he was just too lazy to cry.

We went for quite some time before we faced a medical issue.  Trevette decided to have a seizure (the first one we knew of) on a cross country flight from Boise, Idaho to Chicago.  I was never so freaked in my life.  Fortunately we were on a United flight with a neurologist and 3 very good flight attendants.  United accommodated us with food and tickets.  Of course we got to get off the plane first with 200 strangers staring at us.  And I must say having half of the Chicago Fire Dept waiting for you as you deboard a plane is an experience.  Did you know that they stop airplanes taxiing when an ambulance is present?

Our next crisis was just that when on a May day, Superman, Cohen decided watching a trash truck go by the house was not exciting enough and he fell out of a second story window.  There's a point in a crisis where you say to yourself, "This is going to be a bad day."  I said that to myself as I called my husband to yell at him for leaving the window open and then he calmly told me to call 911.  I didn't want to call 911, it was going to ruin my day!  I placed the call and moments later heard the town fire siren bellow and then minutes later I could hear the ambulance sirens as it came nearer.  There is something surreal about an ambulance backing up to your door and having your dining room table used as triage.  Once again I found myself in the back of an ambulance.  By the way, you all look funny when you're driving behind an ambulance.  Long story short, Cohen was life flighted to a trauma center, that was a new experience.  I'll never forget that feeling of being led up to the helipad and the looks of concern I received.  There's something surreal about paramedics giving you updated medical reports in  your head set. In the end, he was fine and had a follow up that revealed narrowing of the spinal cord but has no ill affects of it today.

We went a couple more months and another call to the paramedics was made when one of T's seizures was not so routine.  Having 7 grown men in a small bedroom was quite a sight. 

We went naively about with our lives until one Halloween Day when a dog attacked Guthrie as he slept on the floor (not my dog, not my house).  It was a day that I counted on a good friend.  My husband was thousands of miles away.  Guthrie had many staples, one surgery and still bares the scars.  In the process I found out who I can count on and who my friends are.

A few months later, Cohen had dental surgery and then 4 days before moving we called the paramedics when he whacked his head and we couldn't stop the bleeding.  An ambulance ride and staples and Humpty Dumpty was back together again.  It's a funny thing when paramedics recognize you!  I hear since we left San Antonio and Dover that they have laid off medical personnel.

I was living blissfully in Rhode Island, proud of myself for having no ER visits when a morning call from the school nurse brought me back down to earth.  Guthrie had fallen off the playground equipment and broken his arm.  A cast?  This was new to me.

3 days later, count them, 1......2......3 days later, the same school nurse called to tell me Trevette had been injured.  He broke his nose. Good friends were there to answer my call for help and to laugh with us when they brought a huge roll of bubble wrap.  It's coming in handy.

Here I sit waiting for a call from Ortho.  I'm just glad I'm in a new state where they don't know my history or my name......yet. My friend Julie and I really should share a parking spot at the E.R.  I don' t like this drama, these life interruptions.  Thank you for my family and friends who shake their head, give me their condolences and then humor me!......Oh! and they don't judge me!  Life is never dull.....yet it's very routine for this house.  Good thing I have a good sense of humor!  But in reality I'll take the bumps and bruises any day......