Upcoming Procedure

It's been a bit of a crazy week around here.

Last week or so, we got a call from Children's. That's always enough to make my blood run cold, seeing "Unknown" on the caller id. They're always unknown, for whatever reason, and 9 times out of 10, the unknown caller is Children's. I missed the call, so we got an email, which sends another thrill of dread through me.

They want us to come to Dallas for a sedated echocardiogram on Eden. We have an echo done every other visit but Eden is a little wiggle worm and isn't still enough for the test to be super detailed. The congenital echo specialist doesn't come to Abilene, so we need to go to her. We met her briefly when we went in January and she's a very nice woman. It'll be a simple procedure, they'll put her to sleep, do the scan, and then we'll wait for her to wake up and eat before we're free to go home. All told, we should only be there for a few hours.

Figuring out all the logistics was, of course, a pain. More so this time, though. Austin's out of town and won't be back until Friday. They originally wanted us to come the Monday after, which is SUPER inconvenient, but when I asked about Friday, they said that was fine.

So the plan is, the boys and Eden and I will go to DFW on Thursday sometime. The boys will stay with their grandparents that night while Eden and I drive on to Dallas to stay in a hotel close to Children's since we have to be there at 8.30am on Friday morning. After the procedure, she and I will head back to Arlington and reunite with the rest of the family. Austin's flight lands at DFW airport around 7.45 that morning, so his dad will go get him and the two of them will hang out with the boys. Austin's mom will, too. They boys are super excited about spending the night at BB and Papa's house, but I think it's more to do with the toys and Netflix than anything else. A change of scenery is always nice for kids.

Austin left last Thursday, making this trip the longest we've been apart since we got married and the longest either of us has been away from the children. And of course that evening, I started feeling sick. And got worse. Friday I was definitely down and out. Mom called on Saturday to take Eden, since she's not supposed to be around people coughing and snotty (we had to retrieve her from the nursery at church one Sunday because a coughing snotty child was dropped off) and I asked about all of us coming so I could get some rest. So we all packed up and spent the night at Oma's house. The boys thought that was great, and Eden loved having people holding her again after two days of not being held much more than for transportation between areas. We went home Sunday evening, by which time I was feeling a lot better.

And of course I had planned to do some bulk cooking this week. And had some activities planned with the boys.

So it's been a little crazy, packing up for an impromptu night away, trying to get better from a nasty cold/allergies/whatever the heck this is, trying to keep these kids alive in spite of their best efforts (Elijah got knocked into a window and broke it last night...he's fine, just got the bejeebus scared out of him by Mommy). Today we'll get through as best we can and tomorrow we'll probably start packing for our trip. Packing and preparing for three kids is exhausting. Moms don't get vacations. Not if they're traveling with their kids.

The boys have been great through all of this. Elijah hasn't thrown nearly as many temper tantrums as usual, Asher has been as helpful as he can.

Anyway, they currently need help and since I'm it until Thursday, I need to go. As always....

Eden's Medical Fund