Thank you for your prayers

Well, what a scary night Tuesday was. I didn't even know a temperature of 106 was possible - the thermometer just kept on going and going and all I could think of was "please stop going up, please stop going up."

It all started Monday morning. I went to Ava's room to wake her up for school and noticed she felt warm. She had a temp of 101.5 so she stayed home from school and I figured she just had a bug. The day went on and around 2pm her temp was at 102.3 so I gave her some tylenol. It went down a bit but not for too long. Gave her tylenol again before she went to bed. She also started with a bad cough on Monday night. Usually when she starts coughing, it doesn't start off bad but will gradually get worse. Well this time she coughed and it sounded bad right from the start.

At 3:30am Tuesday morning her temp was 103.7 so we took her to the doctor in the morning. My first thought was that she had strep throat again because she said her throat hurt so I figured she would need an antibiotic because she had an infection. Ava NEVER gets a temp over 103 so I thought for sure, we would get antibiotics. Well, the nurse practitioner tested her for strep and for the flu Tuesday morning - both came back negative. She assured us it was just a virus and would go away soon. We took her home, Tony stayed home with her, and I went into work for a bit.

Tony texted me later to say the temp was at 103.4 even though he gave her some motrin just a couple of hours before. Told him to put her in a lukewarm bath and make sure she wore light clothing. I called the doctor again to share my concerns that her temp was still high even after meds. So she called in a prescription for Ava for tamiflu, even thought the flu test came back negative - she thought it would help with her symptoms. Well, tamiflu was $212 so I said, "no thanks - we will just try and keep her comfortable."

6:15pm - Ava went to sleep and her temp was around 102. Tony and I sat down to eat dinner. Around 7:30pm Tony noticed she was moving around a bit in bed so he went to check on her. Said, "Hey Em, she feels really warm." I took her temp and the numbers just kept climbing and climbing. Finally it stopped at 105.2. We immediately put shoes on, grabbed some flip flops for Ava, locked up the house, and got in the car.

The hospital took her temp twice and I sat there watching the numbers climb. First time it was 106, second time it was 106.2. I almost started crying. The guy taking the temp looked at the nurse and told her, "I took it twice." They went and got ice packs to put under her arms. Ava's little heart rate was high. She started to cry but I wanted her to calm down thinking, what if she has a seizure? Got us in a room and as we walked into the room, the doctor walked right in with us and started askinng us questions. "When did it start, does she have a cough, did you go anywhere this weekend, did she get bit, is there cancer is your family . . . " Then you could hear them consulting with one another by their computers - "They said they went to oceanside to a pumpkin patch, she didn't go swimming, cough started yesterday, . . . " I was grateful they were moving quickly with trying to help her. So they did lab work, urine test, chest x-ray and took the labs in a big orange bag that said STAT. Gave her some fluids and they took her temp again and it had gone way down. I was so grateful for everyone's prayers that night.

When all of the tests came back, it was determined she had Pneumonia and they gave her some antibiotics through her IV. I was so relieved we had an answer.

Ava was such a trooper. Anytime one of the doctors or nurses asked how she was, she would say, "I'm good." She was very relieved they could just leave the needle in her arm so that they wouldn't have to poke her again each time they gave her something. The doctors and nurses were wonderful. Our nurse brought Tony and I some coffee and crackers - I jokingly asked how much it would cost (but I was only sort of half joking because I knew we would be getting a huge hospital bill in the mail). Luckily, the coffee and crackers were free.

I felt such peace knowing that the Lord arranged this night the way He did. All day I had been praying, "Lord let me know if I need to take her to the emergency room" because Ava has a very high deductible - and we don't just go to the emergency room for a sore thraot or a little slice on your finger. And He did - it was very clear we needed to take her. Also if Ava hadn't gone to sleep so early, we wouldn't have noticed her moving around it bed and checked on her. If we all went to bed at the same time, I wouldn't have checked on her for awhile and it just makes me overwhelmed to think "what if we all went to sleep and I didn't check on her for hours?" Who knows what would have happened with her temp so high for so long.

So once again, I praise God and I thank everyone for their prayers. And I am at peace with the huge bill we will get in the mail because we had to take her. And the Lord will provide for us the way He always does. I have complete peace.

"I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live." Psalm 116:1-2

-Emily

Spanking

The other day as I was walking back to my car after dropping off Ava at school, there was a mom with her children walking toward me. The mother looked mad and the little family kept walking while the mom kept talking when she finally just reached over and hit her son on the arm (maybe to be extra sure he got what she was trying to tell him?) Either way, I walked away very interested in the whole idea of spanking/hitting your children as "discipline."

Now, I'm sure she was upset about something - you could see it in her whole demeanor. And she didn't hit him hard or else I would like to think I would have said something. But it is fascinating to me that some people spank their children as a form of discipline. If you think about it, those that spank/hit their children cannot do it to anyone else. If someone I supervise at work does something wrong EVEN THOUGH I'VE TOLD THEM A MILLION TIMES THAT'S NOT HOW IT'S DONE AND NOW I AM FRUSTRATED I can't just reach over and whack them on their arm. If I do something at home and Tony hates my guts, he can't come over to me and hit me - he'll get arrested. But kids? Sure - go right on ahead and spank them.

Countless studies have shown that spanking your children is not effective and people tend to do it more out of frustration rather than "Okay Johnny, I'm going to spank you now with an open hand on your bottom because I didn't like how you just spoke to me and I'm doing this to correct your behavior." If you are trying to correct a child's behavior with hitting - what message does that send? "You did something wrong - now I can hit you." Totally illogical. Not to mention, when they get older, what are you going to do then?

Now, I have heard many tales of people spanking their children maybe once in their lives because of something just crazy that happened and the parent was freaked out - e.g. child walks out into the street and a car is coming so you hit them on their bottom as you yell. I can logically get that and maybe that will be me one day. I can also see myself pushing Tony or smacking him if he jumped out from behind a door and scared me half to death - I get it. But I don't get it when people spank as one of their primary ways of discipline.

Interesting fact: the United States passed an Animal Welfare Act in 1966 to help protect animals. Did you know that the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act wasn't passed until 1974? Now I'm not saying spanking is child abuse so don't go crazy. I just thought it was interesting that we had a law passed for animals before we did to legally protect children from abuse.

Now, I work somewhere where everyday I hear stories about families and their children who are taken away because of abuse. I have heard horrendous stories about sexual abuse that would make you want to vomit. I hear about the children who are malnourished and live outside under a tarp. Very sad world we live in. So if you do have your children, let's love them, show them patience, notice when they are getting tired so that we don't frustrate them, etc - because life goes by so fast, doesn't it? And I for one need to stop being so judgmental and start being more kind. And helpful. Rather than just talking all the time without doing. Because that's just as bad as spanking - maybe worse. Maybe that mom that I saw at Ava's school that hit her child on the arm has no one to talk to and her life feels out of control. Who knows. We can all be more kind. You never know what someone may be going through.

So just some thoughts I had to share . . . sort of a bummer topic I know. But children (especially babies) are on my mind (and bladder) all the time now so these things just pop up. Plus as you know we don't have cable at the Dual house so evenings can be very quiet. But in all seriousness, we can all love better. And then our children will see us loving others better, and then they will show love to others more, and then . . .

-Emily

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord . . . " Psalm 127:3