Sienna gets Sick

One of the most obvious vestiges of my cultural heritage is that of always trying to find out the exact explanation for why things happen. Which normally is a good thing. When something bad happens we try and find out the reason(s) for which it happened to prevent it from happening in the future. However, over the past few years, I have found that it just makes me crazier if I search for a why and that in life many of the "whys" we search for simply don´t exist.

Sienna was in the hospital for three days last week with Bronchial Pnuemonia. My mental IPOD has been running over the last few months of her life like the old fashioned broken record. Sienna started school, I started traveling more with my new job, Tito travels with his new job, house is a dirty, dusty mess, etc.. This is me trying to find the why. It seems that Bronchial Pnuemonia is caused by a bacterial infection that usually starts with an upper respiratory infection. Due to the fact that Sienna has been a really healthy kid, I didn´t think it was urgent that she had a runny nose for two weeks. Alas, I was wrong on that one. We ended up in the emergency room with a very sick little girl.

I felt so bad seeing her have so many needles put in her arm. I kept on thinking, "she is only three". They had to put a port in her arm to put in the antibiotics and rehydration fluids for three days. Sienna now calls this a "sew." Let me explain. Sienna and I sing the sony from Mary Poppins, "doe, a deer, a female deer, ray, a drop of golden sun......sew, a needle pulling thread, la a note to follow so.....that will bring us back to doe." Anyone remember that one? I told Sienna that she couldnt move her arm for three days because she had a needle in it (needless to say, idiot mother finds out on the last day when they are taking it out that it is actually only a piece of plastic. Oh dear, where is Nurse Rus when I need her?). So, Sienna thought they were sewing her arm, hence, "the sew". Now, Sienna says, "I will drink all my medicine and water so I dont have to get another sew in my arm."

I dont have the heart to tell her that on Thursday we have to return for blood tests and X-rays which unfortunately one of which requieres a needle. Sienna is doing excellent now and she seems to be a million times better since I allowed her to play in the park for awhile yesterday. Her mental health was suffering from being tied to a machine and not allowed to go outside. At one point she said, "just let me out the door!". Okay, I let her out the door, mental health also needs to be attended to.