Winter 2012-‘13: Anders’ health was at the forefront of our minds. His chronic coughing had us seeking various doctors for reasons as to why he wasn’t getting better- only worse. He fell into a cycle of catching a slight cold which would then explode into a serious, croupy, seal barking type cough. The kind that, if he was in public, I got stares that said, "What is wrong with your kid?" He wheezed, burned with fever and coughed so hard that at times he would vomit. The sound of it- day and night- made my stomach twist in knots. We’d put him on steroids and an antibiotic and he’d recover for about 2 weeks. I called this his honeymoon period. And then he’d get sick again.
He had missed over 4 weeks of school that year due to illness. Our primary physician had us see an allergist who referred us to an ENT who finally sent us from the small town clinic to a pulmonologist at Children's Hospital in St. Paul. We were tired and worried and wanted answers. Hopefully being sent to a specialist from a bigger facility would bring us just that. We spent a full day watching our son Anders go through poking, prodding, and having all kinds of bodily fluids collected, images taken and more. It was tiring but necessary and I was thankful for the thoroughness of this doctor.
Then there was the waiting.
Waiting on the phone, waiting for an appointment, waiting in rooms, waiting in lines, waiting for barium to be digested, waiting for the doctor, waiting for results… Ugh! The waiting!
I learned that I am not a patient person and that waiting is hard for me. I don’t like not knowing something and it drives me crazy imagining that (maybe) on someone’s desk are test results that I want to know and maybe someone is too busy to call me that day. So I call them. Everyday. And we're told to wait some more.
Waiting is hard.
Psalm 27:14 Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.