Role reversal

I am sitting here this morning with my cup of coffee after only about an hour of sleep in total last night. Normally any time my husband leaves town for a work related trip something happens. Murphey's Law has struck us during this time every year of our 14 year marriage. It never fails! I could count on one hand the number of times my husband has been able to be there when one of the kids has been very sick, hurt, or when I've been sick or hurt. It's just the nature of the job.

I think back on times when I've been in the ER for 6 hours with three kids while one was sick, or when I had to have emergency surgery with a 2 year old and newborn, or the 3 am call to a friend to take me to the ER while her husband watched my child, or the countless times I've had to call on friends to watch a child or two while I took the others to the ER for medical treatment or stitches! Needless to say this had become something I had gotten used to and honestly something I'd taken for granted. I know how weird that must sound. If you're the parent that is always there when your child is sick or hurting you get used to wearing that Superhero cape; being the one that is always there to comfort them, to make sure the doctors treating them understand exactly what's going on, or the one to push the doctors into running a test on your momma hunch alone. I never truly understood how powerless and out of control my husband must have felt each time he couldn't be there to help. How awful it had to be sitting and waiting for an update text. Through all my complaining over sleepless nights with sick little ones, or time wasted in ER's, I never actually saw what a blessing it can be and how hard it is to be the one on the outside looking in with no control over how things go.

Yesterday I took my oldest daughter to the doctor because she had a spot on her back we were fairly certain was infected. Sure enough the doctor had the same concerns. She drained it for a culture, cleaned it, prescribed some antibiotics and an ointment, and told me what to be certain to watch for. She definitely had me worried when she told me she speculated MRSA! So I was on the look out for the troublesome symptoms she told me about. The redness spreading, fever, chills, joint pain etc. We put the kids to bed as normal and about an hour after we fell asleep my daughter came in crying. She had gotten sick in her bed while sleeping and she felt "icky". I was immediately concerned when I saw her shaking. She was also running a temperature and said her legs were hurting her. My husband suggested I look at her back and it looked like the redness was spreading. My husband jumped out of bed, threw on his clothes, and said he was taking her to the ER. I was of course concerned about my daughter, but was a little relieved that at 1 am he had offered to be the one to take her and that I wasn't going to have to sit hours on end in a germ infested waiting room. I had no idea how hard that was going to be.

Over the course of the night I must have sent my husband 3 dozen text messages containing questions, concerns, instructions for both the doctor and him, lists of medicines, symptoms, and of course don't forget the doctor's note for school! He reassured me he had it all covered and to get some sleep and he'd update me when he knew anything. Sleep? With my child sick and away from me? I never was able to go to sleep. I had finally seen what it was like to be the parent on the other side of the phone waiting on the updates.

I am so grateful that he was here to help though. Not sure what I would have done in that situation with two sleeping and one needing a doctor at 1 am. I am also grateful that after running a few tests they determined that the infection wasn't in a serious state like we had feared.

The fact that she has started the antibiotics should put an end to her symptoms quickly.

From this point on I will have a lot more patience with my husband when sickness strikes while he's away and he's wanting update texts every 10 minutes. I will also remember in the midst of sleepless nights and stressful days with three kids that I am the one that gets to be the Superparent. I get to do the comforting, I get the cuddles, and I'm the one that gets to nurse them back to health. There truly is no better job!