Unexpected Family Time

Elise and David?????

Elise called last week. She was sick. Really, really S I C K!!! It's kind of a long, boring story, but this is an abbreviated version of what happened...

Elise needed to have verification of her last tetanus shot before she could register for second semester. Her last tetanus was in 2005, but we had no way to prove it. We all had to have a tetanus shot after Katrina because of all the debris. I, for one, stepped on a nail, as did many, many people because of all the devastation. A medical group came to our church and gave us our shots. The only bad thing was that none of the shots were recorded. Bottom line: Elise had to have another shot.

I warned her, ad nauseam, to tell the people at the clinic about her last shot. I was really concerned about overdoing a good thing. The nurse didn't pay much attention, gave her the shot and sent her home with a list of warnings to watch for. (No, I did NOT just end a sentence with a preposition!) Well, you guessed it! She woke up the nest morning and had ALL the warning symptoms except for hives.

She went to the nurse on campus. Elise had a fever, was wheezing, and had an elevated pulse and blood pressure. The nurse told her she needed to see a doctor, so Elise and her room mate drove to the ER. They told her she had a sinus infection. Next morning she was even worse. I was beside myself, and my daughter seemed soooooo far away.

So, what's a mother to do??? I can only tell you what this mother did...I prayed and kicked my speed into overdrive!!! I called our family friends, the DeJongs. All three boys (men) are now doctors and they were more than willing to see Elise. They gave her a chest x-ray, cough medicine (with CODEINE...gotta love it!!), antibiotics and told her she couldn't go to class all week.

I scoured the internet to see if I could find a cheap flight and Southwest came to our rescue. Elise flew home late on Tuesday night and was able to be sort of isolated on the plane. She wore a mask...even David wore one for the ride home since he was sitting next to her in the car. He said he felt like he was in some low budget George Lucas movie that ran out of money when it came to his costume!!! He did kind of sound like Darth Vader with that mask on!!

It was great to Elise home. I loved driving up to the house at night and seeing her bedroom light on. I loved sitting downstairs knowing Elise and David were both upstairs...it did my 'Momma heart" good!!!