Thursday, January 26, 2006

Being a Mom is Terrifying.

We had a horrible scare Tuesday night. I got a call from my son saying something about blood and an ambulance had just arrived. (It ends up he was saying his sister turned blue; nothing about blood.) All is OK now. For details, see my partner's blog.

It was terrifying and horrible and THANK GOD all is good now. As I rushed to the clinic where my daughter was waiting to be seen (good that an ambulance was not needed), I realized this strange turn of events, which we were pretty sure was turning out OK, could mean the end of my second sememster of law school. Would there be long-term care and follow-up appointments needed? Could I catch up what I had missed? This meant I had now missed 2 of 3 nights of two different classes. Would I be able to focus and get engaged in the work? None of that really mattered. What mattered was that my daughter needed to be OK. Life and death situations sure have a way of smacking us into the reality of what is important.

We're holding our kids a little tighter and a little longer now. It's going to be a bit harder than it was not going home to them after work today, and for a while, I suspect. I sure hope, in the long run, this law school experience and the resultant degree, is worth all the sacrifices my whole family is making.

4 comments:

Casey said...

It's worth it. It will be worth it for the rest of our lives - we just have to get there. :)

I am grateful that you saw no other option than to rush home to us but I still feel guilty that you missed your classes - knowing that you had already missed them a few days prior to be home to help me with their HF&M problems.

I honestly didn't even think through to the conclusion that you would come home - like i said before, I was so focused on what needed to be done immediately for our baby. But I am so, so thankful that you were there for us - and for me. The sense of relief that washed over me when you walked into the waiting room was amazing.

Dagny said...

Family comes before everything. You did the right thing. I don't know if I have any classes with you. But let me know what your schedule is and if we have a common class I will give you notes.

Mieke said...

This is my biggest fear. I am the mother of two young boys and waiting to hear if I have gotten in to any law schools. The changes to my family will be huge - the sacrifice great. I have to keep reminding myself that it's only three years. I am glad everything is ok.

Anonymous said...

Both my kids and myself did breath holding spells as kids. One of my girls, 11 years old, still does them occasionally. They are scary looking as all hell, but not inherently dangerous, except for banging your head on the way down. Think of it this way. The person is passing out so that blood can get back to their head. You will start being able to see one coming on, just have your kid lie down until they feel better. We had our first kid thoroughly examined by a neurologist. Apparantly this phenonenon is related to fainting at the sight of blood, which, apparantly about 10% of humans do.