I realize we are just getting started helping our children and family as a whole unit live and succeed with chronic disease. We have definitely had more experiences in the hospital and at the doctors than an average family, but know there are other families that absolutely have had more experience than us. Watching each of our infants experience at some point an extended hospitalization left us feeling confused, afraid, lost, guilty, and often very angry. In the beginning I remember a toe to toe nose to nose discussion with one pulmonologist on call one day in the hospital with my 7 month old son (who heart breakingingly screamed bloody murder through every IV). The pulmonologist told me to “get used to this mom, you have to get used to this, you have children with a chronic disease you need to expect weeks in the hospital.” I was furious. I told her I refused to accept the hospital as normal and I refused to quit asking to go home as soon as we could as often as I could. She never came back to our room, and I never saw her again. She asked another pulmonologist to handle us (lets be honest me). I think I would like to let her know now that I apologize and I understand. I’m not happy about it, and it still feel angry about it a lot of the time but I understand that being intermittently hospitalized is part of my children’s life. We also understand that our emotions are second to helping our kids do their best to prevail with positivity and hope. Our attitude will be mirrored and magnified in them especially if it’s a negative one.

Monday, June 19, 2017

When Her Pancreas Was Broken From The Start




Me and Baby Maelee 10 years ago.
Can I just say my hair has never been
this long since this picture? #goals
 As I sat in the CF clinic exam room 10 years ago and our dietician was explaining to me the details of my baby not having a functioning pancreas I learned that she could, would, and does experience frequent and often constant stomach pain and cramping. I remember feeling relieved that I had justification for holding her even more. I hated to think that my tiny innocent baby could be hurting and not be able to tell me. As she has gotten older it is even more difficult to hear her say her stomach hurts and watch her suffer and know all the meds she is already taking and that it isn’t enough to end the pain. Watching my kids struggle with severe pancreatic insufficiency and their CF in general, has helped me to remember that what you see on the outside of a person is not at all reflective of the struggle and pain they are experiencing on the inside.  


Watching through mother eyes as my oldest has experienced rough and constant stream of dealing with her stomach issues since birth I was recently touched when I thought of her in relation to “a certain woman” referenced in the New Testament who had the issue of blood for over 12 years (Mark 5, etc). The woman “had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse” – Mark 5:26). “And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole” (Matthew 9: 20-21). I want her to have faith as this woman did to know that through Jesus she can and will be healed. I want her to fight through the throng of people to get her arm stretched out enough to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. I know she can be that woman and is becoming that woman now.

I also know that not all healing comes on earth. So I need to help her to wait. That is one of my jobs as a mother. Help her to wait with faith and hope. That one day lung function and pancreatic insufficiency won’t be a problem for her and to be happy and enjoy life while she waits for that day.

Her glamorous ring.
Being the annoying song lady.
I'm not always perfect at compassion and motivating because there are days when I've run out of gas myself it seems. However, it is the little things that the Holy Ghost helps me to know will help. Things that are tiny in thought but powerful in purpose. Things like, finding a flower ring on clearance in the hospital gift shop and walking it up to her to find her awake from her post op nap vomiting blood. I wasn’t planning on getting anything but found the ring and was so happy to be able to give it to her during that difficult recovery. She was thrilled to wear the ring on her IV hand so it would still feel like a beautiful hand. Or when earlier this month when we were going to a follow up appointment that she was extremely nervous for I made her a hat the night before so she would have a little something new and special to wear to the appointment. She is my daughter after all so I knew a little “accessory courage”, one of my favorite kinds of courage to lighten the morning would go a long way (don’t worry I know courage comes from your heart but a fun hat or a pair of earrings can go a long way too in my warped opinion). You never know when you make someone something if they will really like it or not but it was just the thing to help her be positive through the appointment. Or a month before her hospitalization she was getting sick and we had months ahead signed up for a family 5K. She was really dragging and struggling throughout the race. A goofy song I had heard on the radio came to mind and we sang it together to get through the race. Something always comes to mind when the anxiousness of the moment presses on my own mind as I watch her.

Accessory courage at its best on CF clinic day.
When I was searching for some words I needed to hear this week I found something even better. It was this talk by Boyd K. Packer. He explains that we all (especially family members of people struggling mentally and physically) need to “become like angels who “move the water,” healing a spirit by erasing loneliness, embarrassment, or rejection…..If our view is limited to mortal life, some things become unbearable because they seem so unfair and so permanent. There are doctrines which, if understood, will bring a perspective toward and a composure regarding problems which otherwise have no satisfactory explanation…….That day of healing will come. Bodies which are deformed and minds that are warped will be made perfect. In the meantime, we must look after those who wait.”

I feel and see the love of Heavenly Father in my life as I live my life as a mother to all my children.

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