Weekend Wrap-up

Can you still do a weekend wrap-up two days after the weekend has passed?

Well, here I go, even though there really isn't all that much to wrap up actually. Friday night we had a great time as a family. After pizza, we had one of our family movie nights complete with the queen size air mattress, lots of pillows and blankets, and of course popcorn and sprite. Reagan LOVES this and Gracen is even getting into the gig too. Just in the last month, she has learned how not to fall off the air mattress. She crawls on and off gracefully, which means I can actually sit and watch the movie. Reagan's movie choice was Snow White. I know Gene was thrilled to see this movie again, but he never complained. We watch a lot of girly movies around here, and I guess he has gotten used to this. We were going to make S'mores outside around our firepit, but Reagan just about fell asleep during the movie, so we nixed that idea. After the girls were in bed, Gene and I made coffee and watched TV together.

In my last post, I wrote how excited I was to have Gene home 3 Friday nights a month starting this past Friday night, and then we started talking and realized that he has something the next 2 Friday nights....this coming Friday night is a regular college event and the next Friday night is an annual event at our church, the Graduation Banquet. The last weekend in May, he is going on a white water rafting trip, and we have some graduations thrown in there for good measure. So we will have to wait to settle into this new routine of some more family Fridays as we progress into the month of June.

On Saturday, we were expecting really bad weather, so we literally stayed home all day long. I enjoyed the low key day with nowhere to go and nothing to do. However, by about 4:00 I started to feel like I was in an insane asylum because, let's face it, the monotony just gets to you after awhile. We debated going out to dinner or going somewhere, but thought that as soon as we left the house the storm would hit. We didn't want to risk it, so we just toughed it out until bedtime. Thankfully, we only received some rain and wind, no tornadoes or hail as predicted.

On Sunday, we had another great day of worship. Gene is teaching through Romans in Sunday School, and Bro. Glenn preached another sermon on pride. The worship is always good and, I love being with the EMBC family. The people there are so wonderful and genuinely love our family. After church, we headed home and spent about an hour outside enjoying the sunshine before heading in to put the girls down for their naps. After a restful afternoon, we headed back to church.

Well, I warned you before you started reading this entry...nothing exciting all weekend.

I do have some interesting information about the ordeal Gracen went through on Easter Sunday. I spoke with a ER nurse friend of mine last night for over an hour about Gracen and what brought us to the emergency room that day. We never got a clear answer about why Gracen almost stopped breathing. My nurse friend is pretty confident that Gracen was in septic shock. You would have to google it for a complete explanation, but basically the body starts to shut down, or go into shock, due to a raging infection. Microbes/toxins get into the bloodstream and lead to a decrease in oxygen delivery. 35% of septic shock cases derive from urinary tract infections and 15% of septic shock cases derive from respiratory infections. Gracen had both of these infections. It can occur when the white blood count is higher than 12,000 and Gracen's was 34,000. The ER doctor mentioned this as a possibility, but my pediatrician didn't, and I really forgot about it until now. I read online that the mortality rate from septic shock is approximately 50%, and it is the 13th leading causing of death in the U.S.

Can anyone else say, "Oh, my goodness!!!!!"

This information has greatly changed my perspective from why did we have to go through all of this for a urinary tract infection"...to "Praise the Lord, for getting us to the ER and for sustaining her precious little life." I am so thankful that God chose to reveal her problem to us and so far, is choosing to heal her. We go to Children's Hospital this coming Friday and I have prayed a great deal over the last couple of weeks. I am still a little anxious, but much more ready to go and find out EXACTLY what is going on with her and how we can prevent such an infection from occurring again. Praise the Lord for medical care.

Please be praying for all of us as we get ready to head to Birmingham early Friday morning. I will definitely blog on Friday afternoon, letting you know the results and the plan of action.