Monday the 26th was more eventful than planned. I arranged for girls to go to Jo’s and Levi to stay with Lori Allen, so i could go to Dr. Becks office to have a small in office procedure.

During the operation Dr. Beck commented, “that is larger and farther back than I anticipated.” Awesome. But after some numbing and a few stitches later I was ready to go home. His nurse Karina told me to call if I had any heavy bleeding, chills, or fever. I asked if there had been a lot of blood, because I normally have to eat hamburgers for a few days after getting my blood drawn. Kristi said I should definitely have a burger or two.

So I picked up açaí bowls for Jojo and me for lunch and then swung through a drive through to grab a burger. After I made it back to Jo’s with lunch and Levi we ate, chatted, and I fed the baby. Then I suddenly needed to go to the bathroom because I could tell I was bleeding. There was a lot of blood. Like I felt like I was having a miscarriage again. But I still called Jordann into the bathroom to ask if she thought it counted as “heavy bleeding.” (Dumb question. If you have to ask that, you should always call the doctor) So I called my doctor and they asked me to come back in right away. Every time I got up I felt more blood gush out.

I drove back down to the office, thank goodness I wore black pants. I got back on the inclined surgical bed where I was rechecked and packed full of gauze. Dr Beck had to leave to deliver a baby but the bleeding picked up again after he left. Two worried nurses later, I ended up requiring to have a nurse stand over me continually adding gauze and pressure for the next 45 minutes or so to try to stop the bleeding until he got back. Some serious mad scientist clotting medicine mixture later and more poking and prodding I was able to go home.

I ended back at his office for a third time for more light but continued bleeding. The fun never ends around here. And eventually made it back to my kids.

I thought it would be best to play it safe and stay at moms house for the night because Marc was still out of town all week on a dental rotation in Winslow.

When I got all my people to mom’s, Abby said her throat hurt and after a quick flashlight look later we found out her throat was covered in puss. Mmm. I had a momentary mom freak out moment in my head of “I can’t stay here! I can’t get me and my babies sick. I catch strep faster than anyone… But I just lost all this blood and I’m so tired but what if I need help or start bleeding again. Ughhhhhhh!!!” But I obviously didn’t hide my internal struggle well because my mom just asked to check me too because I spent the day with Abby yesterday. Yep, I was pussy too. Best day ever.

So we then had two weeks of a total of six doctor visits, seven prescriptions, and one visit to the emergency room to get some more extensive blood work. Everyone was sick. The girls both ended up with red throats, serious nausea, vomiting, the runs, fever, and stopped eating for two days. Levi has a double ear infection with serious hits of painful tummy gas and lots of tears. And I was totally exhausted from a body working overtime trying to remake blood cells, make milk for baby Levi, and get over strep. I was crazy nauseous, chills, heat flashes, headaches, unable to eat, light headed, with serious fog brain that struggled at times to complete strings of thought or find words when talking.

My mom was an angel. She took the night shift with Levi so I just had to wake up, pump, and try to go back to sleep. She had the girls sleep in her room to let me sleep better. She fed us, kept everyone alive, helped us to the doctor, cleaned up barf and gross diarrhea diapers, and let me and the kids lie half dead in her family room with endless movies playing.

Hazel never wants to just be held and falls asleep on me even less. So I wasn’t sad at all about snuggling this sick girl of mine.

Even in the ugly my kids were troopers. Hazel is so funny. She has just gotten to the point where she will actually sit and watch most of a full length movie. And the girls would take turns picking the show. Hazel’s changed almost every time but every time she picked she always say, “this is my favorite!” “Greatest Showman is my favorite!” “Tangled is my favorite!” “Hairspray is my favorite!” “Poison Apple (Enchanted) is my favorite!” Having Hazel pick the movie is my favorite.

The day Ruby was the sickest my mom finally went in to wake her up from a four hour nap, because we needed her to be able to go to sleep at bed time. My mom asked Rubes if she could pick her up and take her into the family room. Ruby told her, “No Grammy. I can’t. I’m really busy. “Busy doing what? “ “Laying in your bed.”

Tangled is my favorite!!

One night when I had finished pumping I went and sat by my mom and Levi on the coach as they were watching Netflix. Granted it was like three in the morning. And out of nowhere, Ruby walks in delighted to see us. Surprised, my mom asked her, “What are you doing awake!?” And in her most sweet and kind voice Ruby told us, “I was just checking on you to make sure you alright.”

Maddi brought us dinner one night, it was delicious as always. And Ruby was telling Maddi about how she got to go to summer camp (back in June, but clearly it made a huge impact on Little Miss). “Yeah, I got to go to camp because I am three. But Hazel didn’t get to go, because she is not three enough.”

AND I have angel friends. I had kept Shelly loosely in the loop with what was going on. One day she text me that she had something to drop off for me at my moms house. She didn’t even knock, in case we were sleeping and just let me know it was outside. It was a giant basket full of six princess coloring books, three boxes of crayons, paint sets, chalk, bottle of bubbles, so many stickers, a doctor rubber ducky and $40 worth of gift cards to Ned’s Crazy Sub and Cafe Rio. I cried a little. The note included let me know it was a combined effort of the mommies from my neighborhood play group.

I don’t like being sick, but I think I dislike asking for help even more. So even though it was a little painful to need so many people to function, I was totally amazed by the love of so many.