Sicky Week: Jessica

"I never got sick for the holidays. Lucky me. My sister, though, seemed to only get sick on holidays. She’d have 100% attendance at school, but still suffer all of the illnesses we did. She just saved hers for days off of school. I always felt bad for her.

I did have one Christmas, though, that ranks way up there for having a sick family member. I had a new baby just before Christmas, and we were excited to have him home on the big day. On Christmas morning, I woke up and knew something was wrong. He was yellow, and lethargic. I knew he had jaundice. We allowed our older child to open Christmas presents, but we knew we had to take him in. We loaded up a tray of cookies for the nurses, and figured we’d stop at the hospital to have his bili-levels checked, and then go on to the celebrations at my brother’s house. I figured, at worse, we’d have to take a light with us to his house. No, that isn’t the worst that can happen. The worst that can happen is you sit for 30 mins in a waiting room, holding your little baby, and then a nurse comes in, and SHE is crying, and you know it isn’t good. Different levels mean different treatments. Anything under a 7, they leave. Under a 10, they don’t treat, but ask that you come back for another test. Under 13, they send you with a billi-blanket. Under 20, they hospitalize with banks of lights. Once the levels hit 30, you are looking at brain damage in your child. His level was a 29. He still holds the record for the highest levels in our hospital, ever. I went from sitting there, wondering how long until we could go to get Christmas dinner, to wondering if my child would have permanent brain damage.

They rushed and put every light they could find in the hospital on him. I could hold him for 20 mins every 3 hours. My father-in-law came to the hospital to assist in giving him a blessing. My mother-in-law came with. They brought Christmas dinner to us. I remember sitting there, at that little hospital room table, barely able to taste the ham and potatoes. Our toddler amused himself, and the nurses, by running his new tractors up and down the hall. We had all sorts of visitors coming to see us, because that’s what people do at Christmas. I had a new, beautiful baby that I loved to show off (as all moms do), but I had to do it pointing through a glass window, and showing the little thing under all those blue lights. Don’t think, for a minute, though, that those visits people make to hospitals, to see perfect strangers, don’t mean the world to those who are in the hospital. People gave him quilts, and books, and little stuffed animals that he still has and loves. For me, though, I was encouraged by anyone who would come and tell me how beautiful he was, and was willing to say a prayer for us.

The ordeal lasted a month. He endured lots of tests, and had a team of doctors across the state working on his case. It didn’t act like normal jaundice. But, in a month, his body kicked in, and his liver started working, and we were done. He is an active little boy now, and shows no problems from his early trials. The whole thing effected me more than him. Every Christmas, I can’t help but think about that little, tiny, helpless baby, and the helpless feeling I had as I had to just watch him and now hold him.

It reminds of what a blessing the gospel truly is. The whole purpose of Christ coming down to earth was to allow families to be together. For all those mothers who have ever ached to hold their baby, that is the greatest gift of all. "