God's Love
We do not see the wind; we only hear it sigh.
It makes the grasses bend whenever it goes by.
We do not see God's love, but in our hearts we know
He watches over us wherever we may go.
We do not have to see to know the wind is here.
We do not have to see to know God's love is near.
--Elizabeth Cushing Taylor
Jared continued to grow. We kept his local pediatrician busy. We grew particularly close to Dr. Fritz. We felt comfortable with him. It helped to know that he had previously served a residency at John's Hopkins Hospital in pediatric cardiology. Any time Jared had a sniffle, off to the doctor we would go. We weren't willing to take any chances with his already compromised health. On one particular night, right around the Christmas holiday, I called Dr. Fritz out of a party to meet us at the hospital to see Jared. He met us there right away. I had also gotten him out of bed in the middle of the night with a frantic phone call. Never did we ever hear a complaint from him.
One evening, right before Thanksgiving, when Jared was 26 months old, he suddenly developed difficulty with his breathing. I was out Christmas shopping and Steve was home with the children. I had stopped to talk with a friend who was also shopping when a page came over the loud speaker, "if there is a Donna Masten in the store, would you please come to the service desk." I was informed that there was a family emergency and that I was needed at home. I knew Steve would never have called me unless there was a dire emergency. My friend grabbed my shopping cart and insisted on putting everything on her credit card so I could pay her back later. She wouldn't take "no" for an answer and I didn't have time to argue. I was touched by such kindness.
I hurried out of the store. It had begun to snow and it was accumulating quickly. The normally 15 minute drive felt like 15 hours. I didn't know what I'd find when I arrived home, but my instincts told me it wasn't going to be good. I pulled the car up into the driveway and ran into the house. I took one look at Steve who was holding Jared and ran to the phone and dialed 911. Jared was struggling so hard to breath that I was certain he would collapse at any moment. Steve had already taken him into the bathroom and run hot water through the shower using steam to try to open up his lungs, and then he took him out in the cold air but nothing seemed to help but prayer.
The ambulance soon arrived. They put me on the stretcher and had me hold Jared while they administered oxygen all the way to the hospital. By this time, it was snowing so hard that the driver could not give the hospital his exact location. Visibility was near zero and all he could say was that we were "in route."
When we finally got to the hospital, Jared's faithful pediatrician was waiting for us. Jared had developed croup and because he had been intubated so much, the tubes had caused scarring in his throat. When his throat became inflamed and irritated by the croup, his esophagus swelled on the inside and made it hard for him to move any air. He was admitted to the hospital on the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving.
I was supposed to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for our extended family and so the day before Thanksgiving, I had to call everyone and cancel our holiday plans. There was absolutely no way I was going to let anything get in the way of my staying with Jared for the duration of his hospital stay, and besides, we would have that much more to be thankful for once we got Jared well and home again.
l once got into a little scuffle with a nurse during one of Jared's earlier hospitalizations over his feeding tube. She insisted on replacing his tube and I told her I would replace his tube myself. She told me she would do it "her way" and was not very nice about it. I had been doing it for so long, that Jared was used to my technique and I didn't want anyone else getting him upset. So, I put my foot down and refused to let her touch him. She put a call in to Dr. Fritz, who in return, assured her I knew what I was doing. She backed off and when Dr. Fritz came in that evening, he told me that "the nurses just aren't used to the parents knowing how to care for their children the way you do." He seemed a little amused.
I don't know how amused he was, though, when they brought a second child in to share a room with Jared. I didn't mind the sharing at all, but what I did mind was that the child was extremely ill. He was coughing and sneezing and spewing germs all over the place. His nose was running fluorescent green and that was enough for me. I couldn't believe he wasn't quarantined. I called Dr. Fritz's office and told him to please come over and discharge us. I was taking Jared home. He didn't need to catch whatever was coming from his new roommate. So, Dr. Fritz came to the hospital and discharged us with his blessing.
A couple of days later, Thanksgiving dinner never tasted so good!
Stay Tuned . . .
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