A Mere Diagnosis

Last week was a hectic one. Both my kids were sick and had to be put on antibiotics. "A case of strep" was the diagnosis our pediatrician, Dr C (who happens to be a close family friend) had come up with. A week later, my little boy JD still was not well. He developed rashes that I attributed to the antibiotics he was prescribed. Despite the antibiotics, his fever was still on and off.
Needless to say, we took him back to Dr C and they ran blood tests. He calmly told us that he needs a colleague to take a look at my little boy. His lab tests are a little off and he just wanted to be sure it is not somethingelse. This somethingelse being "Kawasaki Syndrome."

I thought to myself, "Oh ok..." and out loud asked, " What is Kawasaki?" I work in the medical field, seen my share of pediatric patients and am not familiar with this diagnosis. He explained this to us but nothing was going thru my head but, "ok, if it is, then how do we deal with it?" "what are the treatment options, the risks, how do I protect my child from all the effects of this disease, how do you know for sure you are right and how effective is the treatment?"

That night, hubby J and I researched what it is that they are proposing my child has. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4634 is what we found. Overwhelmed with the possibility of this diagnosis being fatal, we both broke down... ok, it was more like I broke down. I can not believe that we were facing the possibility of my little boy who just had his birthday celebration the Sunday before, may have celebrated his last birthday with us. Oh, it was just too much to bear. I felt like a failure for not being able to protect my son from this horrible disease which incidentally had a higher incidence with kids from the Far East... so it is also race specific.

Amidst the fear, worry, sadness, anxiety, I had hope. It's funny how faith works that way. The prayers have not only gave me a sense of inner peace, it assured me that everything was going to be ok. I remember the story of Job in the Bible, that despite all that was taken from him... his livelihood, his kids, his wife, his health, and his friends, he remained faithful to God and so God was faithful to him. I was sure that God will deliver us out of this situation and that he will give us our "daily bread" to endure what it is that lies ahead... all because He loves me... He loves my son more than I can ever love my son as his mother. In this I found recourse. I slept while in the middle of prayer that night. I fell asleep in my Father's lap while I was telling Him my concerns, my fears, my sadness.

The following day, we received a call from Dr C telling us to go to Dr L and Dr P the pediatric cardiologist. During the visit, we overheard Dr L talk that depending on the results of the echocardiogram (a more definitive test) and how JD's coronary artery looks like, that the hospital prepare a room for him so we can get admitted right away if they find something not favorable. Needless to say, Dr P found a healthy coronary artery, the heart of a young man at 3 years old. What relief!!! ... the words of a fellow human being with the training to treat and evaluate illnesses such as what they were afraid my son had... brought relief to hubby J and I. I was overwhelmed with a sense of peace after this. God sent us people to comfort us. Once more, like in Job's story, God was faithful to the faithful. I never once doubted this. It was His way of showing us that our faith is bigger than this mere diagnosis.