The Kids

Gabby
The last couple of months have been challenging. Between Gabby's illness and Junie's hearing problem, John and I have been at our wits end. At least there is good news for Gabby. It looks like her medical issues have mostly been related to allergies. I was a little slow on the uptake because we were told last year that she had mono. She didn't. The doctor misread the test.

This put a whole new spin on things in my mind. The clue for me wasn't the long list of symptoms that Gabby was having (dizziness, uncoordination, low grade fever, sore throat, nausea, anger, panic, weight loss, sneezing, etc.). The clue for me was the time of year. Both last year and this year, Gabby's symptoms started at the same time, in March. Once I put 2 and 2 together I got 5. No, you didn't read that wrong. I got 5.

The reason I got 5 is because nothing is as it seems when it comes to our family and their health. Allergies, especially on the Morrison side of the family, don't always present in the usual way. Allergies in Gabby often look like something else entirely. Of course, when I suggested this to the doctor, she didn't believe me. Fortunately, she did humor me though and prescribed Gabby a nasal steroid and an allergy medication that Gabby had to take three times a day. At about day four or five, we knew we were on to something. Gabby's demeanor totally changed. She started eating again. She wanted to go outside and see people. She even wanted to go back to school. Next year we're going back to the allergist long before March rolls around.

Junie
Junie had the tubes put in her ears last Friday. We expected the surgeon to put the tubes in and that Junie would wake up and hear just fine. Instead, the surgeon told us that June has a severely retracted ear drum in one ear and that it would have to be watched carefully. This means that she still doesn't hear well in that ear. Frustrating, but at least she has one ear that works right now. At this point, I don't know what the prognosis is for the other ear. Of course, the underlying cause of the problem is allergies. Go figure we'd adopt a child with allergies and now hearing problems (hopefully temporary).

Ending Thoughts
I don't know if anyone noticed, but every pet (all seven) we've had has had issues. I have health issues and so do both of my kids. I'm now pretty sure that any living thing (plant, animal, or person) that we bring into our house to stay is going to have medical issues. Now, for all of you glass half empty or glass half full people, I'm not taking a stance on whether our situation is positive or negative. It just is. Oh, and please don't tell me one more time that God only gives you what you can handle. If that's true then God must be setting the bar really high for our family because he just keeps sending the work our way.