Meningitis, Rabies, Strep....lessons from God...

My last post was only 13 days ago and so much has gone on since then, it feels like it's been over a month at least!  So last I wrote Pumpkin wasn't feeling well, she had gotten bitten by our hamster and then the hamster died and she came down with a fever, vomiting and sore neck.  After trying to make her comfortable all night long, she was still screaming in pain from her neck and stomach.  I waited till 8am and called our pediatrician to get an appointment.  The earliest they could get her in was 11am, but she was laying on the floor and had endured pain all night long I didn't think I could make her wait any longer.  So I put her in the car and took her to Patient First.

When the doctor came in she asked me what was going on.  I told her she had gotten bit by the hamster on Thursday, the hamster was dead Friday morning, and Pumpkin came down with a fever friday night.  She was vomiting, had a high fever, pain in her neck, and stomach pain.  The doctor asked what the hamster died from, I told her the pet store told us "wet tail."  So she said she would go research it and get back to me.  She was gone about five minutes when she came back and told me that she thought Pumpkin may have gotten meningitis from the hamster.  She did not examine her at all, did not look in her throat, did not look in her ears, did not feel her neck nothing!  She then gave me a note and sent us to the ER.

Once at the ER, the first thing they did was ask her to touch her chin to her knee, which she did, and they said she wouldn't be able to do that if she had meningitis so that was ruled out.  So then they said their main concern is that she could have rabies!!  WHAT!!  Pumpkin had tons of scratches from the kitten on the tops of her hands, and they started questioning me about the kitten.  They wanted to know if it had it's shots yet.  I told them we actually had an appointment this morning but we ended up there instead.  So they started saying that we need to give her shots for rabies.  They said that if she was exposed to it, they can only treat it within the first 10 days and after that there is nothing they can do for her.  So I started panicking a bit.  But as I stood there and prayed asking God what to do, it dawned on me that I too had cat scratches on my arm and I wasn't sick!  If we did the rabies shots for Pumpkin it would be like 15 days of shots!  So I told them I was pretty sure it wasn't rabies because I would be sick too!

They ended up calling the health department because they said they have to report animal bites.  They said that they were going to come and get the cat and keep him for a while to make sure he didn't have rabies.  I asked why they reported the cat because it wasn't a cat bite it was a hamster bite.  They said the health department wasn't worried about the hamster, just the cat scratches.  FINALLY they stopped worrying about the animals and actually examined Pumpkin.  They felt her neck which had lumps all around it and she had puss on her tonsils.  She ended up testing negative for strep, but they said it was strep because of the symptoms.

I was pretty angry that they had me in fear all day long that my child was dying from meningitis and rabies, when if they had checked her in the first place they would have found out that she was just sick with a virus.

By the time I got home the health department had been here, they dug up the hamster and took it for testing. They said they weren't worried about the cat at all!  When I got inside the house I gave Sweet-pea a hug to discover she had a fever!  And later that night I ended up at Kid med with her and Goobies.

As usual they all passed it around and were sick for about a week or two.  They had ear infections and were all on antibiotics.  I asked the doctor when I was there, if this could be happening so much this year because maybe I'm not cleaning something good enough?  He said they are all inner ear infections and cannot be caused from any type of germ, it if from their ear tubes not developing correctly yet.

So, last week was my last week of summer classes.  I really enjoyed my bible and evangelism class.  I learned two important things in those classes that have already really helped me quite a bit.  #1: being humble is always viewing everyone else as better than you.  #2 trusting the Holy Spirit to work, will usually result in better results than if we do it ourselves.

I think having a large family has really made me insecure.  I always feel the entire world is always waiting to pounce on me.  We've had so many rude comments about the size of our family, and feel like people are just waiting to prove that I'm a bad mother for some reason.  I feel even more pressure to make sure they are clean, well dressed, well educated, and well loved because I feel like people think that large families like ours  neglect their children.  I have problems with thinking that people are always trying to think they are better than me, or that they think they are more spiritual than me.  Not that I think I am more spiritual or better than them, but it makes me feel like I have to strive to be even better, if that makes since.  So, if I can just think that everyone IS better than me, then it makes things so much easier, and takes so much more pressure off!

Also this week I've learned a great lesson on giving my problems over to God and trusting him to take care of things.  Nathan and I have been looking for a new house.  We are planning to rent our our house and buy a new one. We were not sure we would be able to qualify for a loan to do this but after applying and giving it over to God, we DID!!  We found a house that would be perfect for us, but then the house would not qualify for the type of loan we have to get for our situation.  So we are still looking.  Also last week was the last week of my summer classes.  I worked day and night, and into the mornings trying to finish up 3 weeks in 3 classes.  My professors had extended the courses till Sunday but I still finished on Friday!  Saturday I saw that my Evangelism professor gave me a ZERO for my discussion board because she said she could not accept late discussion board work.  I was so shocked seeing as how she told me that she removed the due dates for all my assignments and just keep her informed on my progress.  When I messaged her about it she said that she would give me a 70 for the misunderstanding but that's all.  She ended up forwarding the issue to her supervisor to make a decision.  I prayed and gave it to God!  Sunday She messaged me back and told me that since my final grade will be an "A" anyways her supervisor wasnt too concerned about it.  I was so relieved!  I too told her then I wasn't worried about it as long as I get an "A".  So...I have finished two semesters so far with a 4.0 GPA!

Monday was the first day of my fall classes.  This time I'm taking American History and another Math class.  Things are going well for us right now and look to be on the upswing.  We are very excited about the next few weeks!  Pumpkin & Little Bear started Upword cheerleading monday.  They LOVE IT!  I can't get Pumpkin to take off her uniform!  Nathan's parents are moving their Jewelry store into a new location downtown in the James Center on the 1st of September!  We are very excited about that!  And we are going on Saturday to look for some more houses.  We are praying that the right house will come along.  We are in desperate need of more space!!  We have a 1,000 square foot house for the seven of us right now and really need something bigger!  We are also getting things cleaned up and organized and ready to start homeschooling this fall, in about two more weeks!  We are so ready to get back on a good schedule!!