Things We Take For Granted...

...our good health.

My family has always been very healthy. We have had our fair share of the occasional cold, cough, ear infection, stomach bug, etc, but, overall we have been a pretty healthy crew. This Fall Blake has been sick pretty much since Maci started kindergarten. His colds all turned to wheezing coughs and ear infections. In fact we spent 40 of the last 60 days with him on back to back antibiotics for 4 consecutive ear infections and also have been put on a daily medicine to keep him from coughing and wheezing. SERIOUSLY!! His ears were finally clear for the first time this week since October. Poor baby boy. We were incredibly relieved to hear that we won't have to do tubes for him, at least not immediately. What an answered prayer.

Well, in the middle of all of that, we took Payton to the doctor for her 4 year well check. This was her first dr's appointment since her 3 year well-check, and we had changed doctors earlier in the year. Well, when this new doctor was evaluating her charts, he was not happy with the difference between her height percentile last year and her percentile this year. He was concerned about a possible thyroid issue because of her apparent lack of growth and decided to do bloodwork and a urinalysis. When I got home, I looked at Payton's stats in my books and discovered that the other doctor actually just plotted Payton's height incorrectly on the growth chart, so I was no longer worried about a thyroid problem because it was just a mix-up that alarmed our new doctor. I decided I would let him know when he called with our results. After a few days, the doctor called himself. He said that all her levels were pretty normal, but that he was very surprised to have found a UTI. He was surprised because she has NO symptoms of a UTI at all. NONE. Anyway, he put her on an antibiotic to clear it up and had us schedule a re-check for it.
At her re-check 2 weeks later, he found that not only did her infection not clear up, but it got a whole lot worse. She still had no symptoms to speak of. This alarmed our doctor. He had us make an appointment at Texas Children's to have a procedure called a VCUG and an ultrasound done to see what was going on inside our Payton. Her appointment was Dec. 30th and it was horrible. Poor little girl was a bit traumatized. While we were there, we were able to hear from a doctor that she has VUR, which is a reflux of the kidneys. Her grade of reflux, when we spoke with our doctor on our way home, was a grade 2 out of 5 on one side, and a grade 4 out of 5 on the other. He informed us that because of the level 4, she would be having surgery to correct the problem. Unreal. Two weeks ago, we had never even heard of this, and now our seemingly perfectly healthy baby girl will have to have a pretty intense surgery to correct a pretty serious problem. She has no idea there is anything even wrong with her. It pretty much breaks my heart.
It also looks like we will have to test the other two kiddos for this because there is a chance they could have it too. WOW!!!

I have always prayed daily for my children. I pray for their salvation, I pray for their protection from all sorts of evils, I pray for their future mates, I pray for their relationships, I pray for their talents and temperaments, I pray for their future, I pray for their safety. I daily pray for my children. I will tell you that their health is something I have always taken for granted. Why would you just assume your children will be healthy, how silly. Why did I over-look that one??? Not saying I think that I could have done anything to change what is going on in our sweet family right now. I do not think any of this is happening because I overlooked it. I'm not that big. I just took it for granted that we'd always be healthy. I will tell you this, the little things like the health of my family, will be in my prayers too from now on.

We will meet with Payton's urologist in a few weeks and find out more about her VUR and the surgery to correct it. We are praying that it is easily fixed and that she will be completely free of it once the surgery is complete. We are also praying that Maci and Blake do not have it as well. We are praying that Blake's little ears stay clear and that his immune system will protect him from getting so many colds. We are praying that our children are healed from all that ails them. We are praying that our children have good health from here on out.

We are praying that we don't take God's blessings and His protection for granted.