"Hope ya know, we had a hard time."

I've been thinking a lot of this quote as I've thought back to the week we have had. We had our first experience with our little boy getting ill, and it was a dramatic experience all right. But we are on the other side of it, feeling so grateful that our joyful Joseph is just that again.

He had a fever all day Monday, but never had a crazy high temperature. Tuesday morning came and no more fever, but still feeling a little under the weather. I will never forget hearing him fall in the other room and thinking he tripped but coming in to see him having a seizure. It was awful. I called 911 and then Victor who miraculously picked up--he had the exam in his hands he was supposed to be taking. We woke up Dom and headed to the hospital, hoping the seizure was a one time thing.

While in the ER, he had three more seizures. Every time it just left me in helpless tears. We got admitted to pediatrics, where he had two more seizures. This whole time the doctors were doing tests trying to find out what could be happening, and basically doing a process of elimination. The blood test came back negative of such and such virus. The head scan came back negative for any bleeding or tumors. It was frustrating to keep seeing seizures and not getting any answers. 

After the 6th seizure, they gave him some really strong medicine targeted to seizures. That knocked him out the rest of the afternoon, when they decided to transfer him to Stanford Childrens Hospital in Palo Alto. Transferring him there was a nightmare. He woke up very angry and hard to comfort--and they had to put in a new iv and kept missing, which understandably made him furious.

It was an exhausting night at Stanford. I am so grateful it was only one night. The doctors there: fantastic. The facilities: awful. Only one toilet and one shower for all the families in our wing. No good places to rest. My heart went out to all those families whose poor children had to stay extensively there. A children's hospital is just a very sad place in general, even if they try to make the walls colorful and decor happy. 

When J woke up the next morning, I was so happy to see that he was beginning to have his normal interests again. He wanted a bottle. He wanted to play with his car. And he wanted to watch his favorite movie: Cars. 

They kept monitoring him, and came to the diagnosis that the original ER doctor back in Monterey had predicted: hand foot and mouth disease (he had the rashes) where the fever and virus had affected a nerve to cause the seizures. We hope it will never happen again.

The day before Victor kept saying to J that when he gets better we would go get ice cream and a new toy. J probably wasn't listening and probably didn't remember, but Victor sure did pay up. We went to ikea right by the hospital and got some new toys for him, and some ice cream :)

The whole time this was going on, we were feeling an outpouring of love and support from our families and from our ward family here in Monterey. My wonderful friend who took my baby for 2 days, including overnight which is so giving considering he wakes up still in the night. Friends who came to give a blessing, and my relief society president, who offered her parents home for us to stay near the hospital (one more night and I would have taken her offer). She even offered to come and get my milk I had pumped and take it to the baby. 

One of my favorite quotes is from Spencer W Kimball: "God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other in the kingdom."

Boy did I feel that this week. It's been incredible. It was through all these people that I felt the love and concern of our Savior.

Back to my subject line. A great talk from Quentin L. Cook you should read and it kept coming back to me:                          

"We know from the scriptures that some trials are for our good and are suited for our own personal development. We also know that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. It is also true that every cloud we see doesn’t result in rain. Regardless of the challenges, trials, and hardships we endure, the reassuring doctrine of the Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ includes Alma’s teaching that the Savior would take upon Him our infirmities and 'succor his people according to their infirmities.'"

So yeah, he knows when we had a hard time. He knows and He is there. 

My baby boy is back to normal. Still has some sores, but he is happy and crazy again and when I want to get frustrated that he is going nuts over something, I remember how he was a few days ago and it immediately puts things in perspective and makes so happy he is acting crazy haha. He is my greatest source of joy (along with my other boys) and I am so thankful everything turned out ok, but yeah, we had a hard time.