Tuesday Trauma

So I am sitting here at work, you know just working and my phone rings. My phone rings quite a bit throughout the day, so I answered it like I normally do. The voice on the other end of the phone was not one that often calls me so I was a little shocked when she started talking. It was my sister M. Usually when she calls, she needs a favor or something along those lines so it kind of annoyed me when I heard her voice.

"This is sunShine, can I help you?"

"Hey, mom wanted me to call you and let you know that J is in the hospital."
J is my 14 year old neice. Immediately I begin to tear up as I listen to her explain to me what they think is wrong. She pleads with me not to cry or get upset, afterall I am pregnant. My mom gets on the phone and I immediately lose it and am sitting here at my desk at work crying my eyes out. I tell them that I will be there as soon as I get off work, but if they need me before then to let me know because I am only 2 blocks from the hospital.

Turns out she has cellulitis in her face, caused by a pimple that she kept picking at and it got a nasty very aggressive infection that attacked her little body. The infection has irritated any scratches or ant bites or any superficial cut on her body and infected them too. It also made her so sick that she has not been able to keep any food down and she was so dehydrated that she had lost 5 lbs in 2 days. It also has made her face swell so bad that she can barely open her eyes. They have ran all kinds of tests and are growing the cultures of the bacteria at this very moment in a lab somewhere to see exactly what it is that attacked her. Good news is that her fever has come way down, it was 104 and when I left the hospital last night it was 100.3. She seems to be responding well to the antibiotics and she was able to keep some food down last night. She seems to be on the road to recovery! Hopefully she will get to go home tomorrow.

It just hurts me so much to think about any of my neices in pain or sick. It is just such a helpless feeling. She looks so small and frail in that big hospital bed hooked to those tubes and machines. I just want to run in and grab her out of the bed and hold her close to me and make it all go away. I guess no matter how much you want to, you can't protect them from everything. Sometimes kids have to go throught things alone and all you can do is stand my them and be there for them.

I was there when J was born. Her dad came out to the waiting room to tell us that she was here and my mom and I rushed back there to see her and my sister. I held that tiny little angel in my arms and my mom uncovered her and we counted her 10 perfect little fingers and 10 perfect little toes. Since that day she has been perfect in my eyes. She spent so much time with me when she was a small child. You know I was the cool aunt. The one with no kids of her own that loved to shop and take them to do fun stuff. She has grown up so much now that she would rather be with her friends and I understand that, but sometimes I miss the little rosy cheeked kid who just wanted to stay with me. She does occassionally take a break from her teenage life and spend the night with me and we order pizza and stay up late watching movies and talking.