Playful Rooted

What are the odds that, in the middle of all this baby girl drama, our little Sawyer boy would — somehow — contract scarlet fever??

That’s right. The same scarlet fever as in The Velveteen Rabbit. The same as in Little Women. The scarlet fever that used to be one of the number one killers of small children. It’s still a thing. Who knew? Thank GOODNESS we have antibiotics these days, and Sawyer will be fine. But omg. Scarlet. Fever.

Second, what are the odds that we would wake up one day a few weeks ago to discover our two-year-old cat lying paralyzed on the basement floor? We rushed her to the vet, thinking she had maybe broken her back or something (which sounded terrible enough, but she’s an outside cat who jumps over fences all the time, so it was totally possible). Instead, x-rays showed that she has advanced heart disease. It’s really, really bad. Two-year-old cats don’t get heart disease. And yet. She’s got it. Her heart is pumping blood the wrong direction, fluid is building up in her lungs, she likely has only a few months left to live. Definitely didn’t see this one coming.

Third, what are the odds that our little scarlet fever boy would ALSO come down with croup?? I seriously do not understand how this is happening as we barely leave the house these days. He’s been completely miserable, which means we’ve all been completely miserable. Luca also has a virus, totally separate from what Sawyer has, that has caused a fever, chills, and coughing so hard he vomits. Do I win a Mom of the Year prize, or what?

Fourth….okay, these odds are actually pretty good, but still. In the midst of ALL of this, our 13-year-old beagle is steadily going downhill. We took him to the vet last week and they sent us home with a laundry list of ailments and medications. He now needs two pills a day and shots twice a week for the rest of his limited time with us. Combined with our cat’s four pills a day, as Ben put it, we’re running a pet hospice. Which I guess we could have predicted with our oldilocks dog, but certainly not with the tiny five-month-old kitten we adopted just a couple years ago.

LIFE. It’s a trip. I’m so tired.

One bright spot within the past few weeks! We are cautiously optimistic and certainly not out of the woods yet, but at our last ultrasound, we did see improvements in our baby girl’s brain. Her lateral ventricles had both been measuring too big, but during the last ultrasound, they were both within the range of normal. I hesitate to even post this because I don’t want to jinx it, so maybe pretend I didn’t say this. But it’s a good sign and we are very very very hopeful that this type of improvement will continue. Regardless, it was nice to get some not-terrible news for once!

Several people have asked me for specific things to pray for regarding our girl, so I thought I’d consolidate them here. If you have a moment or two to send up a prayer or some positive vibes, we would be eternally grateful!

Specifics to pray for:

• That baby’s lateral ventricles will continue to decrease in size with a goal of 4mm or under each
• That we will be able to clearly visualize the CSP on the next ultrasound
• That the targeted sequencing panel will be returned with nothing catastrophic
• (Nice-to-have, but less of a priority) That baby’s kidney dilation will decrease and measure within the normal range

It’s actually pretty scary to put this all out there, but the more positivity we can generate for our girl, the better. We sincerely and wholeheartedly appreciate every prayer, every kind word, every meal and gift card and care package people have sent, everything. This has been without a doubt the most challenging chapter of my life, and your kindness means the world.

xo