Knock Knock Knock...
Trick or Treat...
A one year old kitten only really needs to trick or treat one door anyway! Happy Halloween even in Korea! (Dave wouldn't let me change out of the funny shirt I have on. He says I was a Korean Mom for Halloween because it is totally their style)
So, after hearing all my sulking about Halloween in my last post, you will be happy to know that it is a Happy Halloween after all! After thinking we would be spending Halloween in the hospital, a one door trick or treating experience with Lucy felt like heaven! Last night (October 30) Lucy was discharged from the Hospital after a 3 night 4 day luxury stay. She is feeling good, running around like her old self again, and I personally couldn't have been happier than to wake up in my own bed, (be it on the floor, it don't matter) on October 31! I guess the annual Pendergrass Halloween Party happened at the hospital this year! I am so sorry you weren't invited!
So I bet that paragraph sparked your interest a little. Yeah, don't worry, I'll give you the low down. Last week starting Thursday (October 23) Lucy came down with what I thought was the Flu. She had the classic symptoms: Vomiting, Diarrhea and Fever. On Friday, she was completely kaput, and at one point had tears streaming down her face, but she hardly had the energy to cry, and at this very point is when I realized the wonders of T.V. Up until this point Lucy has hardly watched any in her life, but I turned it on to distract her and it was the first smile I saw in days as she tried to "meow" like the Kitties in "Aristocats" and then next we watched the original "Whinnie the Pooh" and I don't know if me or Lucy enjoyed it more (I must have watched it a lot as a kid because I know it has been years, but I still had half the lines memorized...what a great show!). That night when I checked her temperature it was 104.3! Yikes! We were getting ready to head to the hospital, but after a Father's Blessing and some Tylenol, her fever dropped a couple degrees and she actually started crawling around and playing so I thought she was okay and our testimony's were strengthened by the immediate improvement following the blessing.
This was really Lucy's first illness, other than a small cold back in April, so I was learning lots about how amazing mothers, and especially mine, really are. There is some sort of magical endurance that the Lord fortifies mothers with during these kind of times and you begin to realize just how much you love your child and although you might have said it before, now you know there isn't anything you wouldn't do for your precious little one. Well, after a long weekend, Lucy woke up Monday morning with blood in her diaper and so without further thought, we were off to the Hospital. We decided to take her to the hospital in Seoul, even though it was an hour and a half Subway ride, because they have an international hospital and supposedly it is the best in Korea.
We got off the Subway, Dave grabbed a cab for me and Lucy and then headed straight back on the Subway on his way to work, while I took Lucy to the hospital. After a quick pediatric doctor visit, we were sent to the ER which as you can imagine just filled me with joy! After some X-rays, blood tests, urine samples (doesn't sound bad, but those are just a lot harder to get out of a dehydrated baby than a normal person), an IV and an Ultrasound, Lucy was admitted to the hospital. Yay! I remained strong and only cried twice through the ordeal (once when they were inserting the IV and attempted both hands and finally moved down to her foot, and another time when a lady put her hand on my shoulder and said "Korean Mom understand" ) I was very confused, not to mention frightened, although the Doctors spoke some English and gave very earnest attempts to explain what was going on. Being at a hospital and not speaking the language with a sweet little suffering child is just not easy. Before the ultrasound they told me she might need an operation because some of her symptoms suggested she had Intussusception ( click here for details about this illness) a serious and life threatening emergency. All I really understood were intestines, emergency and operation, so I was beyond worried and definitely praying my little heart right out of my chest. I guess somehow the utlrasound showed that this was not the problem, although she did have a swollen section of the intestines and one lymph node (but if I remember right the lymph nodes always swell when you have an infection, so I don't know what that really says).
Here is my sad little Lu on the second day in the hospital (I took Lucy cruising the hospital in this little crib on wheels so she wouldn't be so sad):
By the next day in the hospital, Lucy seemed to be perking up a bit (although she freaked whenever the nurses or doctors came by. She was quick to figure out who took the blood samples) at least she was sitting up and not completely miserable (she was completely dehydrated when we arrived at the hospital, poor girl, so I am sure that IV did wonders for her little body) and by Thursday evening when we were discharged, she was her happy self again.
2nd day on her little hospital gurney:
As you can imagine, it wasn't exactly an easy week. Dave traveled back and forth from work every day and slept on a hospital cot that was at least a foot too short for him, with my sweatshirt for a pillow and I snuggled up on the narrow twin sized hospital gurney with Lucy. The room was designed for 6 patients, but the most that were ever there was four, so we were lucky to have a little space from all the other kids that were hacking all night with Pneumonia like symptoms. I am really still not sure what Lucy had, but they let her go since she seemed to feel better and no longer had blood in her diapers (with some antibiotics to be administered over the next 4 days). They mentioned the words bacteria, stool culture, still waiting, possibly salmonella, and other bacterial names I can't remember, so for now I guess we are calling it Salmonella Food Poisoning, but to be honest I really have no idea if that is what she had or if that was just a possibility at one point and that is the only word I can remember the doctor saying.
Here's Lucy a few hours before she was discharged cruising the hospital grounds (They took her IV out the night before and then changed their minds about her being discharged and put another one in her on Thursday for a few hours and then changed their minds again and decided to let her go home. Luckily they got it in her hand so she could still walk. Her arm isn't through her jacket because it is pretty complicated to get the whole IV bag through the coat arm.)
The experience wasn't all bad, we made some wonderful friends in the hospital. By the end of our stay, random people I met there were bringing us gifts (like bath and body works type stuff, children's books, balloons, etc.) and one nurse brought us the most wonderful croissant sandwiches and bananas all on her off day!
Lucy enjoying her balloon presents, hoping to take a bite. She has started saying "Ball" whenever she sees balloons. I think it is pretty cute.
The nurses adored Lucy and probably gave her a total of 200 stickers while we were there. In fact, the whole place adored Lucy and she became the star of the hospital as we went on our daily cruise around the hospital with her little portable crib and mini wheel chair. I watched so many sad faces light up as they little Lucy. We talked a lot with one thyroid cancer patient who spoke English and were reminded to appreciate every day of our life! We were able to watch a wonderful choir performance one night and while I was thanking them afterward they gave Lucy a couple of their CD's, and they were really good, so I was excited! I was even able to talk about the gospel to one special family I really connected with, so maybe we were sent to the hospital for a reason (I can't even begin to explain how wonderful this family was. We were roommates and they shared everything they had with me from bottles of juice, gum and Choco Pies to pizza. They were positive through there trials and it was completely contagious. They told me they were Christian, but I already knew that every fiber of their family sought Chirst and lived after his example, to make a long story short). I mean, of course, we were sent for a reason because I know the Lord has a plan for each of his children, whether it was to share the gospel or just become a stronger, better mother, or just to appreciate a little more every day that I am blessed to share with my precious little girl. So, although it was probably the hardest thing I have ever done, we did have some good experiences and hopefully our family learned whatever lessons were necessary so we don't have to go through that again!Happy Lucy Again:
Basically had this been a few weeks ago I would have summed it up: foreign country plus hospital equals misery. Luckily, I made a goal two weeks ago to be happy no matter what, so between our bikes getting stolen and our hospital experience all within those two weeks, I have had some quite immediate practice and now should be able to make it through any trial with a smile! Okay, so I wasn't smiling the whole time, but I sure tried. There were many moments I just wanted my mom, because I knew she would know what to do, but then it dawned on me that it was a culmination of these kind of experiences over the last 24 years of her life raising children that have shaped my mom into the all knowing person that she is, so maybe this is just a baby step to becoming the one who knows everything, at least in Lucy's eyes.And so I will have to finish by saying Thank You Mom, I just never realized how you got to be such an amazing and all knowing Mother, but now I think of how many times I was sick, times 5 for number of kids, and well, you are definitely over 100% amazing and I sure hope I can grow up to be just as amazing someday! In fact, really this goes for all the Mom's in the audience, you are stronger than you realize and I know our calling as mothers is the greatest on this earth. Keep persevering, keep caring, keep striving, keep teaching and this generation will definitely still have a chance even amidst the evil of these times. If there are still good mothers, there will always be hope for the world!
