Have you ever thought that you might endure a family tragedy? I never thought of the possibility of dealing with a tragedy. I thought, everything was just hunky-dory in life and it will continue to be that way. My thoughts were soon to be proven wrong. Our family was being thrown full throttle into a most unexpected ordeal that was like a roller coaster ride. Even though we came face to face with a tragedy that was unexpected, I can say that it truly was more of a blessing in disguise. How can you ever call a tragedy an actual blessing? I am going to share how my tragedy turned into one.
It all began the week of Labor Day. Our whole family gathered for a Birthday/Labor Day party. Two of my children have birthdays the week of Labor Day. The good old American Hamburger and Hotdogs with all the sides was our wonderful menu for the day. Everyone ate when they were ready to eat, but we found after some time that the burgers were actually not cooked all the way. Some of the family had already helped themselves to eating the burgers and it was too late to cook theirs more. Oh well, no worries, right? Wrong!
Later that week on Friday, my husband and oldest son, were going to Orlando to the Rock the Universe concert at Universal Studios. My son was not quiet himself but did not really complain because he had been waiting for this weekend for so long. This was his special 13 th birthday present and they were going away with a lot of his friends and their fathers. Nothing was going to stop him from having a great time. Friday's concert was awesome but Devin was a little uncomfortable. Saturday's concert was a blur. Devin was so out of it from being ill; and it was so hard for him to have a good time. Yet, he did not complain one bit in fear of ruining the weekend for others.
Sunday morning the boys came home and Devin went to bed. I did not think much about his sleeping all day because of his long weekend concert. That is what teens do. Finally, my son comes to me later in the afternoon and with great embarrassment shares with me some ailment symptoms he was experiencing. He was extremely thirsty, he was getting no relief, but downing tons of water. The more he drank, the more diarrhea he had and to top it off, his diarrhea was completely blood. I did not realize the severity of his condition just by his verbal descriptions. It was when I finally saw for myself how much blood he was loosing.
First thing Monday morning we visited our pediatrician. After consultation and lab work, we were sent straight to St. Mary's Hospital in West Palm Beach. My son and I spent 18 days in the hospital. He endured being stuck for labs several times a day, had 4 different IV's put in and pulled out, had a PIC line put in, had 2 blood transfusions, went without eating for 3 weeks, had a kidney biopsy, gained 40 lbs. of weight from fluid build up, and so much more. All of this was the result from eating a raw hamburger on Labor Day. He was suffering from Ecoli poisoning.
The first week we were on the regular pediatric floor and thought everything was working to get him better. Late Saturday evening things went bad. The nurse came in and said Devin was in danger of going into cardiac arrest and was transferred to I.C.U. What? How? Why? It seemed like one of those episodes of "House" when the doctors think they have everything under control and than the patient crashes. My son was that patient. It was my worst nightmare. This could not be happening to my boy. The five doctors and numerous nurses worked diligently to help Devin.
Needless to say, my son is doing so much better. He got out of the hospital and is being monitored by his kidney doctor while the healing process continues at home. It was a hard thing to go through. I stayed with my son the whole three weeks, while my husband took care of our two younger children and worked. I went several days at a time without seeing my younger children, because while in I.C.U. they could not visit. I watched my baby go through so much and the whole time I just wished I could take it all away from him.
Where are the blessings in a tragedy like this? The blessings came from what my family was surrounded by during this trial. We are so blessed to be part of an awesome church here in Port St Lucie. Calvary Chapel Port St Lucie has been our home church since it first started in April "04". Even though we have been in the church for so long, and have been part of helping others out in their time of need, we did not realize what type of extended family we had.
We had hundreds of families praying for my son. Tons of get well cards came to our home and to the hospital. There were visits to the hospital from well wishers. We had phone messages from friends that we had not heard from in a long time due to word of mouth. My son got homemade cards from ladies from all of the U.S.A. Many of the nurses we got to know were personally praying for my son. There were families bringing meals to my husband and two kids that were home without their mommy. I had ladies on rotation taking care of my kids during the day while my husband worked. I can not even express the overwhelming feeling that just wells up inside of me every time I think of how people reached out to us. I am brought to tears and humbled before God because I know that it was His special gift to our family to get us through the tragedy that we were experiencing.
God tells us that He will never leave us. I know this to be so true, because I felt His presence everyday in the blessings that He surrounded our family with. The blessings did not only come in form of what our church family, old friends, nurses, and the strangers who reached out to us gave. There were blessings from just the peace that God gave me the whole time I sat with my child suffering. Yes, I wanted to take it all away, and was anxious for the healing to begin, but I had the faith that God would heal him. That stuck with me the whole time, even on that hard night of being transferred to I.C.U.
Never take your eyes off of the Lord. During our time in the hospital I would sing praise and worship songs to comfort my son. We read the scripture aloud that showed us that God was still with us even in our darkest hour. We prayed together every chance we got. That whole time I knew that the Lord was listening. He filled me with His peace to make it through.
Blessings can come in all different forms. It is up to us to recognize them. I want to say thank you so much for taking the time to read our story and I pray it blesses you to have read it.