Christmas Retrospective
Sometimes things really, really don’t go according to plan.
For one thing, the Rowan plaid project still isn't finished. I was sure it would be, but it isn't.
For another, there’s this super little guy … my niece’s son, my brother’s grandson. He’s 3 years old, nearly 4. He had a large anachroid cyst (essentially a capsule in which spinal fluid was collecting) in the right side of his head, and it was resulting in pressure and deformation of the skull. The family lives in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota so early in December they brought him 650+ miles to the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital. My brother and sister-in-law are very close to this child and came along. They stayed with me during all this; the kid’s mom and dad spent night and day at the hospital with their son. The surgery went very well; he’s a tough little guy and was so brave.
Then, Saturday, after nearly two weeks back home, he developed a lot of fluid collection inside and outside the skull. Parents and grandparents rushed him back to the ER, a 10-hour drive across South Dakota between snowstorms. He was a very sick kid the last few hours of the drive. Early Sunday morning they reopened the skull and put in a shunt. Again he did well post-op but then developed a fever overnight. They’ve started treating him aggressively with antibiotics while they wait for culture results and try identify an infection site. So far the cultures are negative so who knows?
Christmas? We didn’t know until the last minute how we’d handle Christmas. We normally have a quiet Christmas brunch at home and open gifts Christmas morning with our kids and their spouses. Then often we have additional people in for dinner. My brother and sister-in-law are of course staying with me again through all of this, and they preferred to spend the morning with their daughter’s family at the hospital. So we sent breakfast over to the hospital, and box lunches to approximate a Christmas dinner. And we went on with our own quiet brunch at home. Later in the day, we went over to the hospital with Christmas gifts for the little guy. He had just awakened from a good nap when we got there so we caught him at his best. He was able to smile at the sight of new toy cars and books.
So it sure wasn’t the Christmas we had planned, but it was a Christmas that put things in perspective. It isn’t all about the lights and the gifts and the food … though that is undeniably a part of it. It’s also very much about celebrating friends and family, and being so thankful that we have each other.
Finishing the Rowan plaid project will happen in good time, but right now it's not all that important.
