Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Life is Precious

You don't realize how precious it is until you almost lose it.

Friday, September 7th, I almost lost my son.

We had gone to my nephew's birthday party. He turned 10. We are so very blessed to be invited; for many, many years we were not a part of his, or his brother's, lives. There are three of them, ages 10, 8, and 6. Oops! Make that four! My brother and his wife had their fourth boy (just like us!) back in June.

So, we are at the party, enjoying the company. It was a swim party, and there were about 12 or 13 kids in the pool. My youngest son, Tiny (age 3-1/2) was in the pool, but got out to eat. Somewhere between eating and getting back to the pool, he decided to take off his floaties. My husband (Bugman), my brother, and his friend were all out there too. At some point, Tiny got back in the pool, unobserved by the adults. Bugman said he happened to look out in the pool, and saw a face below the surface, around the area where the shallow area is going down to the deep end. He could see the child struggling to reach his lips to the surface, to no avail. He jumped up, and dove into the pool. As he was going in, he realized it was OUR son. He dove under, grabbed Tiny and pushed him to the surface, while he (Bugman) stayed underwater. He carried him to the steps, where Tiny began to scream and cry. He was as blue as you can get. My nephew came to get me, and I ran out and lifted him from my husband's arms. Bugman was in shock.

Tiny was purple/blue and very unresponsive. He could whisper his name but that was about all. He threw up tons of pool water on me. We called our wonderful doctor (yes, I have her cell phone number for emergency use only) and she discussed things with Bugman, and then decided yes, we should go to the ER. Bugman drove me and Tiny to St. John's ER. We cut through parking lots, around traffic, and broke every traffic law possible. Even Tiny commented on how fast Daddy was driving!

I ran into the ER and put him on the counter, saying "this is my son; he almost drowned twenty minutes ago!" and they immediately took us back.

By then, he was talking some, but could not walk. His skin was still purplish, and mottled in color. His legs especially were bloated, like a pregnant woman's legs with edema. He was pretty lethargic.

They took his vitals, then put him in a room. The doctor, Dr. Locke, came in, listened to his chest and said he wanted a chest x-ray to see if there was swelling or water in the lungs.

Meanwhile, we had called our pastor, some friends, and a whole bunch of prayer warriors! And somewhere between when the doctor came in, and when they came to take him for the x-ray, be got better. Tiny pinked up, the swelling went away, and he talked clearly! He even said he wanted to go back to the party to swim and eat his chicken he left there!

Another blessing was the doctor... who happened to be a client of ours!! Bugman laughed, because he usually sees him when he's sleeping (he has night shift at the hospital, and Bugman sprays the house during the day). We all chuckled about that. He declared that Tiny was going to be fine and sent us home.

We have been through so much with Tiny. So many doctors visits, therapy sessions, blood tests... and now this. Praise God he brought Tiny to my husband's attention.... and I am so glad that Tiny made it through one more challenge. I know that God has a plan for this child!

When you have a lot of kids, I know that parents sometimes get less attentive as each child goes by... you know what I mean... with the first, if he drops the pacifier, you grab it and boil it to sterilize it. With the second, you rinse it under hot water. The third, you might run it under a water fountain. The fourth, you pick it up, look at it (and seeing no hair clinging to it) declare it fit for sucking! With my first, I would have had five different flotation devices on him or nearby for swimming. By Tiny, I guess we got lazy. He had on floaties, but he wanted to by like the other big boys and so he took them off. We didn't even pay attention. We will now.

Hug your children, and praise God they are safe. Love them today like you might not be able to tomorrow.

2 comments:

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Oh {{Susan}}. We had a similar experience a couple of Sundays ago - but not nearly as frightening as yours. I'm so glad tiny is o.k. Praise God for His protection and grace in our parenting and lives.

Amy said...

Praise God! I'm so glad that everything turned out okay.