A humbling experience

On Friday Kalli developed a fever. Joe and I didn't think too much of it as this will happen with our kids sometimes, the fever will usually be gone in the morning. I gave her some medicine and put her to bed. The next day was very busy and Kalli still had her fever but we still had to go to all the places we planned. She was a trooper and never complained. Sunday came around and she still had a fever and it was getting quite high at this point (102.5). Monday morning she still had the fever so I took her in to her doctor to get checked out. He told me it's a virus going around and could last 5-7 days and to expect her fever to continue to be quite high. By Tuesday I was still treating her fever but it wasn't really going down. Joe went out of town on Monday afternoon for work while all this was going on. Tuesday night Blake had a tee ball game and I thought Kalli was feeling better so I loaded us all up to go to the game. As soon as we stepped out of the car Kalli started shaking uncontrollably, turning gray with her lips turning purple. I immediately left with the girls while another mom said she'd bring Blake home. As soon as I got Kalli home I took her temperature and it was over 104. I called the urgent care and they told me to take her to the ER right away. One of my good friends down the street came and got Lexie and promised to be back to get Blake.

Once we got to the ER they took all her vitals and moved us into a room. I later found out that her heart rate was really high and they were worried about that. They decided to take some blood, get some urine, do a strep swab and hydrate her with an iv. Kalli fell asleep after they took some blood and hooked her up to the iv so she wasn't going to be giving them a urine sample any time soon. They made the decision to put a catheter in her to get a clean urine sample out of her. By 10:00 p.m they had done all the tests they needed so we were moved into a room to await the test results. They didn't come back until almost 11:00, but Kalli was sleeping so it was no problem. They came back with the results that it was a uti (urinary tract infection) that was making her so sick. I told them I felt a little foolish for bringing her in but they assured me if I hadn't brought her in the infection would have gone to her kidneys.

She's had a very rough couple of days but I think in the next day or two she'll start getting back to her old self. During this week I've had to ask for a lot of help, which is very unlike me. Wednesday when I needed to get her medicine I had a few hold ups and when I could finally drive to go get it Kalli refused to leave my bed and told me adamantly that she wasn't leaving. By this time she hadn't had any antibiotics so I felt very strongly she needed some asap. A lovely friend came over and sat with the girls while I left. Some more friends brought us lots of food and even brought Kalli some flowers.

Through this whole ordeal I've learned some things about the women I am surrounded by. They are amazing, caring, extraordinary women who care for others and want to help in any way possible. None of them batted an eye when I asked a favor, none of them made me feel guilty for doing so. Most of them did what they did without me ever knowing I actually needed what they did for me. So many times I refuse to ask for help because I felt I could do it. Not this time, there was literally no way for me to accomplish most of the things I needed to do for my family. And those women came in and took care of it. I am incredibly grateful not just for the service they provided my family but also for the lesson they taught me. I love to serve others, it makes me feel great. But sometimes I need to let those women in to help serve me when I desperately need it.

And poor Joe through all of this has had to sit on the sidelines while he's out of town hearing what's going on but not being able to comfort Kalli, give her a blessing or even just hold his little girl. And I know that has been very hard on him.

Thankfully she's on the mend and playing and eating today, which she hasn't done in almost a week.