I Need You to Protect MY Babies

One of the things I fear most as the mom of child with DiGeorge's Syndrome is the unimmunized healthy child. The child whose parents believed a playboy bunny rather than medical science. Or the parents who think it is fine for their child to get major illnesses, not taking into consideration that their child's illness is another child's death.

I don't understand it. Diseases like measles and chicken pox have killed untold numbers of people through the ages. And here we are today, with the means to eradicate these diseases, saving countless lives, and people choose to keep the diseases around! Why?!? Because they had chicken pox as a kid and were fine. That is BS. Pure and simple, self-centered BS! Because some "scientist" published a paper that said vaccines cause autism; a paper that has been criticized, debunked, retracted, and proven to be falsified. Really? What part of fraudulent and debunked do they not understand? What part of the dude has lost his right to practice medicine do these people NOT understand?

Yes, I am angry. Very, very angry. My daughter has been hospitalized numerous times for things you and I would call a bad cold. I would do anything for the MMR or chicken pox vaccine to protect her. But her immunologist has declared it too dangerous because those vaccines are made with live virus. If my baby with her weak immune system had either vaccine, she could easily contract the diseases. And for someone like her, with such a fragile medical condition, those diseases could be deadly. So, no she is not allowed to be vaccinated. Neither is my son because the small amount of virus in his vaccine could infect the Dancing Queen.

I was told not to worry about my kids not being vaccinated because everyone else is vaccinated. But that is a pipe dream based upon sound science and not upon tabloid rumors which, surprisingly, control many parenting decisions. While my daughter's immunologist is sure my kids wouldn't be exposed to chicken pox, measels, mumps, or rubella, he is wrong. Last spring, a child who rode the bus with the Dancing Queen came down with chicken pox. And this week, a child in TRex's school also came down with chicken pox. These children were probably contagious without showing any symptoms for 3 days prior to coming down with the pox. We lucked out last spring because DQ was in the hospital when the child got sick. I guess we'll see next week if TRex was lucky enough to escape the illness. Unfortunately, we will not know if he was lucky until it is too late.

The Dancing Queen is not the only child with immune issues. There are many children with the 22q11 deletion or other congenital abnormalities that cause immune system deficiencies. There are more children who have had cancer and their treatments render them vulnerable. And every child who has had an organ transplant is on anti-rejection meds that weaken their immune system.

Please, have your children vaccinated. Help save lives!

How would you feel if your decision not to vaccinate lead to the unthinkable?

Feeling Blessed

I should really be showering and packing since I planned on leaving my house over an hour ago for a fabulous 4 day weekend away with my girlfriends. Instead, I've been reveling in a morning to myself. I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, good coffee, and playing with pictures of my beautiful children. I figure my friends would understand. I have an entire weekend with them and never get time alone, so I'm taking this morning.

This time alone and my ultimate decision to take the weekend away, has led me to one conclusion: my life is wonderful. I am lucky beyond lucky. I have an amazing husband, fabulous kids, a great family, wonderful friends, a great job, and so much more.

Today, I'm grateful that I can take a weekend away with friends for the first time in 7 years (I think). I'm grateful that my children are alive and able to hug me and goof around. I'm mean look at those faces.

I'm so lucky to have these precious children call me mommy.

I'm grateful for a husband who is my best friend and my life. I'm grateful for my mom who watched the Dancing Queen all week because she was sick and unable to go to school. I'm grateful that I have a job where I can go away for a couple of days and people can appreciate how much I need it.

I'm grateful for so many more things and this morning, I can see it all. But mostly, at this moment, I'm grateful for these smiles.

What are you grateful for today?

One Year

This was my girl, exactly one year ago this morning.

She played and played in her hospital room, using the bed as a jungle gym. It was very hard to tell how sick she was, but I could see it. I still can see it. She is very swollen in these pictures.

Then they gave her versed to calm her before going back to the OR. She laughed at her pacifier in her drugged up state.

One year ago today, I handed my baby over to the surgeons once again, not knowing what to expect.

At the end of the day, she looked so very good. 

 Look at that color!

 Look at that face! She was better!

And today! Today, the Dancing Queen is a big girl. She is goofy and crazy and giving me raspberries as I write this.

I love this girl and her mended heart. I am beyond grateful to Henry L Walters III, MD and the wonderful cardiovascular surgery professionals at Children's Hospital of Michigan, who saved her life many times.

It's all about balance . . . isn't it?

As a young woman, beginning my life, I was told over and over again that I could have it all. I could be the working mom. I could be a professional. I could do it all. The only limit was my dreams.

But that's not true.

You can't live all of your dreams at once, unless you are incredibly lucky. And let's face it, most of us are not that lucky.

To succeed as a mom, you need to invest a lot of time. To succeed as a wife, you need to invest a lot of time. To succeed professionally, you need to invest a lot of time. To maintain sanity, you need time to yourself.

All of it takes time. But you can't buy time. So you can't buy your dreams. You must choose.  And even if you think you have no choice, you are still choosing. 

Everyone will tell you that the trick is to find the correct balance of each facet of life to feel like you haven't given up on everything.

Balance.

That's what it's all about. Or so they try to make us believe. I constantly read articles on how to achieve balance. They all promise the same thing: if you balance your life, you WILL be happy.

But, you know what I think?

I think achieving balance is bull.  The people who sell us "balance" are the same ones who once told me the only limit was my dreams.  Life makes it difficult, if not impossible, to balance everything. There will always be something tipping the scales and attempting to knock us down.

The real trick is to stay on the line when the wind is blowing you over. You don't have to be balanced all the time. You just have to make sure you don't fall off.

I've been pretty close to falling the last couple of weeks. In order to stay on the line though, I had to let go of blogging and reading blogs for a while.  I hope some of the other things can fall away soon, so I can return to the blogosphere, but for today, I wanted you all to know that I'm still here.