My Christmas Presents

I was in the kitchen taking cookies off the tray when Gracie yelled, "OW!" and came running. I was all ready to scold her and Jace and tell them one more time that Santa is still watching. But...

"Mama! Tyler's feeling better. He just hit me with a tractor!" And off she ran, and tried to get him to hit her again! I guess she's glad he wants to play today.

Yesterday was a different story. To catch you up, if you didn't already know, Tyler hasn't been feeling well. He had a slight fever on Tuesday and sounded a little hoarse by that night. I figured he was getting a cold. At just about 3:30 Wednesday morning, though, he woke up crying in pain. Clearly this wasn't any old cold. Health care being what it is (and I'm not getting into a political debate) I waited to call until 6:00 am, when the appointment line opens. I not only took the earliest appointment available (3:50 pm) but also left a message for Tyler's doctor. Leaving a message via the call center is the only way to get in touch with your doctor. We can't call directly or make appointments directly...everything through the 800 number. When you leave a message the doctor, or rather the doctor's nurse, has 72 business hours to get back to you. With the holiday weekend coming quickly I didn't hold my breath. But I'd done what I could and cuddled Tyler close.

During the morning he didn't seem to be doing too badly, although he wasn't eating anything and drinking very little. Increasingly, too, he was having a harder time breathing. When it came time to go to his appointment Scott took him in and I stayed home to catch up on the cookies I'd been planning on baking.

This was my first present...Scott doesn't take the kids to appointments. He claims that he doesn't know how, but honestly, I figure it out as I go and he's pretty smart. Besides I was making the cookies for him to take to work with him. So he didn't complain and stepped up.

An hour after the appointment began Scott called to let me know that Tyler was having "severe respiratory distress" and they were being transported via ambulance to the emergency room for a closer look.

Yes. I took a deep breath too.

I told Jace and Gracie that Tyler's lungs were hurting him and Dada was taking him to the hospital so the doctors could look at him there. They asked if he was going to have to stay, we didn't know. But I asked them to find something to do until Dada called back with more information.

It was time for my second present. The kids got photo albums down and started looking through them, pointing out pictures of their little brother.

"Tyler was so cute last Christmas in New York."

"There's where we went to see Tyler in the hospital when he was born."

"Tyler is so silly!"

I listened from the kitchen with proud tears in my eyes. They love Tyler and were worried about him. I love how they expressed that stress, sharing memories.

After several calls back and forth...long story, short...Tyler was admitted to the hospital and I spent the night there with him. He had croup and was having a difficult time with it. For a while he was getting breathing treatments every couple hours. However, as the night went on they were able to stretch them out and the nurses all listened to his little lungs and smiled.

That was perhaps my best gift. Tyler and I got to come home. He's still got a nasty cough every so often, and may for a while, but he's breathing more easily.

One of the nurses commented that she was worried about him last night and there was talk of transporting him to a specialty hospital. Thank God I didn't know all that at the time. My mind jumped to some scary places as soon as Scott said ambulance. I'm glad I wasn't privy to what a rough state my baby boy really was in. And I'm even more glad that he's no longer there.

Right now Scott's at work, sharing holiday spirit in the form of cookies. Jace and Gracie are happily playing outside and Tyler is taking a nap. The four of them are really all I need, all I want for Christmas. So even though Santa has a few items to drop off for the kids tonight, I've already been taken care of.

Merry Christmas!