Family & Trials

Saturday, December 6th--Tonight I had plans to start up my Christmas baking. I've been trying to find the ambition to do so for a few days now--it's all in the plan to get everything done early this year instead of last minute (yeah, right, like that's going to happen!). This afternoon, I got a call from my sister, Alishia, saying her 16-year-old, Jacob, is at Primary Childrens Medical Center. Yesterday morning he had his wisdom teeth taken out and the whole rest of the day, and into the night, he was vomitting continually. No medication was helping to ease the nausea. Just like Brady, Jacob has Juvenile Diabetes (diagnosed almost exactly a year before Brady was). Alishia decided to take Jacob to the ER last night. Due to the excessive vomitting and dehydration, his glucose levels were extremely high (400's), his ketones high and he was in ketoacidosis. He was admitted and told he was not able to have any meds for pain due to the risk of cerebral edema (if you need me to explain any of this, please ask). With levels so high, Jacob also had a horrible headache. Needless to say, neither he nor Alishia slept last night. When she called to tell me all of this she also asked if we could make the hour trip to Primary Childrens to have Nate give Jacob a blessing. I didn't even give it a second thought, of course we would go. Christmas baking, not so important to get done tonight and I knew the Lord would bless me with time on another day. We got to the hospital and Jacobs glucose level was back to normal, ketones dropping. Hooray! Nate helped my brother-in-law, Shad, give Jacob a blessing. It was quite emotional, the Spirit so incredibly strong. On the way to the hospital Nate and I talked about how it seems so unfair a simple thing such as getting wisdom teeth pulled can lead to such an ordeal for a person with Type 1 Diabetes. It definitely gave us insight to the possibilities ahead with Brady. It's comforting to know Alishia would drop everything for me as well, just like she did when Brady was first diagnosed.

Today, I also found out my dad was in a car accident last night. On the way home from work, a car passed him and clipped the side of the front bumper while trying to get back into the lane my dad was in. Fortunately, the damage was miner and no injuries. My dad even held his tongue while exchanging information with the idiot driver (the jerk would not have been so fortunate had he hit me!). This accident was on top of an already stressful week for my dad. He was called to be 1st Counselor in the ward Bishopric this past Sunday--his blood pressure was already pretty high from the stress of taking on a huge calling and finding there's a lot to be done to "clean house". And to top off this fun-filled day, my mom will probably be needing surgery in the near future. She's had problems with her galbladder for quite some time. I've had mine out so I know it's a fairly minor proceedure, usually outpatient, but she's stressing out about all the bazillion things she needs to do this holiday season plus my other sister and her family are moving into my parents house this month. I worry she'll overdo and cause more health problems for herself.

One thing I've thought about today is how blessed I am to know that my family would stop what they're doing and be there for me in a split second, if needed. And I feel the same for each of them. While my family is dealing with temporary trials we know we have an amazing support system. Some of my family is 1000 miles away. I don't get to see them very often, 2-3 times a year. It's never enough time but we make the best of it. When we're not together we talk on the phone or through email, Facebook, etc. Whether it be Christmas or any time of the year, family is truly the greatest gift. We're there for each other, not only because we should be, but because we want to be.