Sunday, May 9th, 2021

 Day 9 - Mother's Day

It was not ideal.

Spending Mother's Day in the hospital with a sick child is about as fun as petting a wasp, yet here we were. 

While thinking of the bond between mother and child, there was no greater demonstration on display than what Jennifer and Declan had been enduring the past two weeks. 

Her maternal instincts knew that something wasn't okay with Declan. Restless nights, lack of eating, and his behavior all sent her momma alarm bells ringing.

Countless trip after trip to the doctor's office resulted in, "Well everything looks good." Despite his poor weight gain and ability to follow a steady growth curve.

Nothing about this seemed right to Jennifer. So finally, we made the move to go to the Parker ED and set in motion the help that Declan so desperately needed. 

IV fluids for dehydration. Check. 

Moved to Children's Hospital in Aurora and given nutrition. Check. 

Docs continued to get high blood pressures on Declan and many wrote this off to, "Aw he's a baby, it's difficult to get a good blood pressure reading off of a baby, what with them flailing around and everything."

Though every high blood pressure reading we got was when he was still, and QUIET. 

Yet, they didn't have answers. This never set well with Jennifer. Even when it was looking like we were heading for discharge after our first week's stay, the fact that this final piece didn't have an explanation never sat well with Jennifer. 

Then we finally got the answer to his high blood pressure. While it wasn't an answer we wanted to hear, it was one that finally explained why our son had been having such a rough time lately, and we could finally take some steps to help him get better.

ALL THIS - while miles away, Jennifer's other two sons, Lukas and Lincoln, stay with her mother, another woman that deserves all the praise in the world. 

The amount of help Darlene has given us by even just being around to help with Lukas, Lincoln, and now Declan has been a tremendous boon to both Jennifer and myself. 

So on this Mother's Day, Jennifer - a wonderful mother that no doubt saved the life of our 6 month old by trusting her intuition, and Darlene - a grandma who will drop whatever she is doing to help out family, deserve all the flowers and thanks in the world. 

Declan finished his 2nd dose of chemotherapy today, and it looks like...

...tomorrow we may be going home...