I'm No Longer in the Running.....

.....for Mother of the Year. For those of you who also struggle each year to attain this lofty, coveted, prestigious award, you have a better chance now because there is one less candidate in the race after this week! Let me tell you why...

They call me from the school on Monday to tell me that Anderson is vomiting. GREAT! I immediately start thinking of the awful stomach bug that will soon descend upon my home, all of the laundry I will be doing and the fact that I think we are out of Lysol and how can I stop at Walmart to get more with a child that is throwing up. Once I pick Anderson up, he immediately goes to sleep in the car and then goes straight to his room where he sleeps for the next 3 hours never to vomit again. I am thinking maybe we were going to get lucky and escape the bug and all of its nastiness. I kept him home on Tuesday because he said that his head and throat were killing him and he had a slight fever but nothing like he has had before with Strep. On Wednesday he thinks he feels well enough to go to school plus he has a baseball game that night and as I so "Mother of the Year" tell him, "You can't play ball if you are sick enough to stay home!". They did not call me from the school so I am assuming that all is well. He went home with a friend of mine after school to get ready for his game because I had my first middle school "thing" with Jon Milledge. Ok, let me just tell you about the knots that my stomach immediately goes into at the thought of my child going to middle school. Frankly, it is nauseating to me. Have you heard the stories of things that happen at middle schools these days??? Anyway, we got a letter about two weeks ago stating that if your child plans on trying out for any middle school sport they must have a sports physical. All of the local doctors give their time to go to the school and do a VERY basic physical on all potential athletes for $5 with all the proceeds going to the athletic program. Basically, I looked at this as a formality that the school must do to protect themselves...just in case...and to raise a little moolah for their program. So, back to my story. I take Jon Milledge over to the nauseating middle school with butterflies or something in my tummy for what I now call The $5 Physical. They take his group back and I plop my un-middle school liking self down on the gym bleachers to talk to another mom. Five minutes later I look up and see my precious child, who really can't be old enough to go to that awful place, looking at me with his eyes as huge as saucers and lip quivering. I run to him not really caring that I might embarrass him in front of the aliens already known as middle schoolers. As soon as I get to him, one of the local doctors, who is a very nice man but he is Cuban and I can't understand a word he says, starts talking very quickly and I pick up only a few words like....heart, noise, doctor, immediately. I yell, "WHAT!!!". On the other side of me, Jon Milledge is wanting to know if something is wrong, is he going to die and even more importantly to him...is he still going to be able to play baseball. Thankfully at that moment our friend and family doctor walks up and I ask him to please explain to me what is going on. He tells me that nice doctor #1 is trying to tell me that Jon Milledge has a heart murmur and that I need to have him tested by a pediatric cardiologist before they can clear him to play alien...uhmmm, I mean middle school baseball. I ask him if he could please listen to it for himself because no one has ever told me that they heard anything but a happy, healthy heart in my now transforming alien. He listens and he hears it too. He tells me not to worry and that he will call me the next day with an appointment with the heart doctor. As I am leaving the awful place, that now resembles a brick flying saucer to me, I have knots in my tummy AND shaking hands as I call Milledge. I say, "GOOD GRIEF! I came over here against my will for The $5 Physical, not for them to actually find something wrong!!!". I mean really, do people actually fail The $5 Physical? He tries to assure me that everything will be fine and that Jon Milledge will not turn into one of those slightly green tinged monsters.
Ok, now back to Anderson, who by the way was diagnosed with an innocent, childhood murmur when he was 18 months old but no one has heard it since. I leave the wretched school and head to the ball field where Anderson was there with my friend watching her child's game. He says that he had a good day and felt fine....well that is until time for his game to start. A few minutes before his game he tells me and Milledge that he doesn't feel good and that he wants to go home. Again in my "Mother of the Year" manner, tell him that we're already there and his team is counting on him to play so he should stay and play. Throughout his game, where they won and he went 3 for 3, he kept looking at me and pointing to his throat telling me that he really wanted to go home. I kept telling him he was fine. He cried all the way home saying that he felt horrible. I get him out of the car at home and immediately notice that he is very warm...must be how hard he played??! I think maybe I should humor myself and take his temperature....102.4. What kind of mother makes their child play ball with a fever like that???? I get up Thursday morning and take him to see our friend the doctor and Anderson is diagnosed with a bad sinus infection AND drum roll please.......PNEUMONIA!! And if that isn't enough, the doctor hears HIS heart murmur for the first time in 7 years!!!!!!!! So, Anderson is now on an antibiotic and breathing treatments.
Also, just to add a little more drama to my week. Tuesday night our outside dog, Jackson, drags up some sort of dead, disgusting varmint to the back yard. Milledge goes out to the shed to get a pitchfork to carry it away so that we don't have to look at it. Twenty nine hours later I can't find my beloved, Tiger, but I can hear him crying. We start following the cries and find him locked in the blistering hot shed. I can't believe he was crying loud enough that we could hear him and honestly can't believe he didn't die. It has been so hot here this week and the shed has no ventilation.

Can you say.....

So, after the week I've had, I think I am no longer eligible for Mother of the Year. I mean really people, who makes their child play baseball with pneumonia, discounts The $5 Physical as only a formality or some sort of money maker AND almost kills the family cat all in one week? Oh well...I have been trying to win that blasted thing for 11 years to no avail. I guess I did pretty good to make it all the way to May, last year I think I was out in February. Maybe there is hope for 2009! I'll keep my fingers crossed!

All joking aside, please keep Jon Milledge and Anderson in your prayers. Anderson seems to be a little better today and I really think the breathing treatments are helping. Jon Milledge is scheduled to see the pediatric cardiologist on May 20th. I will keep you posted. OH yeah....don't forget me, the mother of a soon to be 6th grade Martian!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers I know...whether you are still in the running or not!! ;-)