September was a really difficult month for me. I've debated how to document it on my blog because I always like to tell the full picture of our lives, hard things included. But this month held some health challenges for me including trips to the ER and an overnight hospital stay, that I'm not going to detail here. It feels too personal, and in some cases, too sacred to recount a lot of the experiences here. But, I do want to say that I was reminded over and over again of how much Heavenly Father loves me and is aware of me. When things got hard, I never felt abandoned- in fact the opposite is true. I felt Him closer to me, working miracles in my life.
I have since recovered, and am doing lots better. I present to you, an edited recounting of September :)
Walking home from church- it's fun to live so close! We live 5 houses away.
The good thing is that the drive looked like this, but it was so hard to drive for so long with such a sick little girl.
We got to urgent care (proud of myself for figuring out the parking in that parking garage!) and we had to wait and wait, on this hard bench. Audrey alternated sleeping and whining. It was pretty miserable for us both. Finally we were seen and they tested her for flu, strep, and covid, and all came back negative. The doctor said Audrey was sicker than most kids he sees, and he was thinking about sending us to the hospital. He allowed us to go home as long as I continued to monitor her fever and take her in to the hospital if it went above 104.
So, after all that, we drove home and I gave Audrey another round of ibuprofen. She somehow perked up for dinner and ate a ton! Audrey's fever came back the next two mornings, and on Wednesday (Aug. 30), Coen got the fever. They were both home from school playing. See Audrey's new carpet and toy organizer I ordered for her room? I wanted to have some sort of normalcy and make our house a home, despite us only being without our stuff for one year.
It was Brent's first day of teaching at BYU-H! I'm proud of him for all the work it's taken to get to this point. He really has a gift for teaching.
On Saturday (Sept. 2), Ava woke up with the fever illness. My ministering sister, Katia, had text me earlier this week and asked if I'd like to meet her at the beach. This small act was such an answer to my prayers because I had been feeling so lonely and struggling to figure out how people even socialize here. There didn't seem to be any play groups, or other groups for women in our ward to get together. We couldn't invite anyone over to our house because it was so hot inside, and we didn't have much room. So how do people socialize? The answer was, often outside.
That afternoon was Back to School - Ava's teacher loves social studies and is encouraging the kids to learn and memorize all sorts of things like our National Anthem and the US Presidents.
The next day Coen's fever was bad in the morning like Audrey's had been, and he also threw up because of it.
That day was Ava's half birthday so we celebrated with brownies:
Audrey's hair is beach wavy already here:
So we met Katia, who is a cute newly wed at Hukilau Beach, while Ava stayed home sick. Talking with her was so nice, as she told me some of the tricks of living here, such as where to buy certain food on this side of the island. Making a new friend and spending time at the beach was a much needed pick-me-up.
Since our house get to be SO hot in the afternoons, we go to Brent's office quite a bit. We found some games at Savers- I taught the kids how to play rumikub.
Audrey had a fieldtrip with her preschool to go to the children's museum in Honolulu. That's an hour+ drive on a bus to the other side of the island! I was slightly nervous for her to go on such a big fieldtrip, but she was so excited to ride a real school bus, and she had a great time.
We decided to have a date every week to Tuesday devotional, which is at 11am. I just take a break from work and join Brent. It's so fun and uplifting!
Happy to have my big girl back! She loved the field trip.
Most nights, there are pretty sunsets out our backyard that I can watch while I cook dinner. This one was particularly beautiful!
I had to go pick up Coen from school one day, as he had thrown up again (this was like a week after being better). I think it may have been from being so hot and not drinking enough? He seemed better after a few hours. The next day, the school nurse called me again, and told me that Coen wasn't feeling well again. I said, "Hmm, that's weird, I don't know what is going on." The nurse seemed to be such a peppy person and told me, "Well, you better figure out what's going on, because he's here again! But he seems like he might be OK. What do you think? Do you want to come pick him up or have him stay here for a bit and see if he feels better?" I said, "let's see if he lays there for a bit if he can get feeling better, I think he might be dehydrated."
The nurse told me, "OK! I'll keep him here. Also, this is so weird, I have your name down as Megan, but your name is Jen?" I clarified my name and we got it all settled that Coen could wait it out.
About an hour later, the nurse called me back and said, "He tried really hard, but he's just not feeling well, so will you come pick him up?" Brent had the car, so I asked him to go pick up Coen in the nurse's office.
A few minutes later, Brent called me laughing his head off. He said, "Coen is fine. He's not sick." I was so confused- what is funny about that? Brent said that he walked into the nurse's office and saw Coen laying on the bed. Brent walked up to Coen, but then looked closer, feeling like he was seeing things. How did Coen's hair get longer? Where did these shorts come from? Brent asked the boy what his name was, and it was most definitely not Coen.
Brent told the nurse, that's not my son. She about DIED. She was frantic- "Oh my gosh! I have Coen's file from being here yesterday, and just assumed it was the same boy, because they look so similar! I've NEVER done that!" Brent laughed and said it was OK and left. A while after Brent called me, we text each other, and we were both still laughing SO hard.
I tried taking Ava to Brent's campus a few times to practice the piano, but you can see from Ava's face how that went. She gets so much homework, that it was hard to find time to practice the piano anymore. I decided to take a break from piano, for both of our sakes.
Watching the turtles felt like a bright spot in a hard week. I'm discovering that the ocean is so healing.
We made it back from Costco in time for Coen to go to his friend's birthday party. When Brent went to pick up Coen from the church, the party was still in full swing and the kids all joined in on the pinata and face painting. This face painting picture Brent sent me was cracking me up.
On Sunday (Sept. 10) we went to the visitor center and walked around the temple. Pictures are a strange thing. I am smiling big, but this was a hard day for me, and underneath the smile was a lot of pain.
She didn't have room to draw Daddy she said. Ha ha. But I love our eyes and hair.
I took the kids to the PCC, just for a couple hours. I love watching the hula in the Hawaii island.
We took the kids up the hill behind the temple to look at the Laie view. Audrey was starting to not feel well this morning. She had a fever, again.
On Sunday and Monday (Sept. 17-18) Audrey continued to have a high fever in the mornings (like 103-104), and then it would go away in the afternoon and she would be happy.
On Tuesday morning, I took her temperature and the thermometer said 106. Our hospital is about an hour away, so I wanted to see if I could bring her temperature down on our own, especially since she hadn't had medicine yet. I called Brent and he ran home to help me, since I was on the verge of panicking, but still barely hanging on. He went to work setting up a fan, taking off her clothes, putting a cool cloth on her head, and giving her a popsicle and medicine. Brent gave her a blessing, and after all of that, she perked up and her fever dropped to 100. Then, Brent and I watched devotional from home together.
Since our house was so hot, we can't stand to be inside in the afternoons, and I often take them to the library on campus or the community library about 10 minutes away. Since Audrey was sick though, we couldn't leave the house, which made it so difficult. We had a "homework picnic" since being outside at least felt a little cooler.
Brent ordered some new shirts to teach in, some of which look very Hawaiian! This one is just a fun one he liked.
We finally had appointments at the doctor's office behind our house to establish care. Since we live in a small community, the pediatrician comes to the medical office behind our house twice a week, and the OB comes to the same office the other two days a week. The other days, the doctors are in another town.
Audrey was still having fevers in the mornings. This was day 6 of fevers, but in the afternoon, Audrey was chipper at the doctor office:
The doctor said if Audrey had more fevers the next day, we should take her to the hospital to get x-rayed for pneumonia. That evening we got shave ice as a prize for being good at the doctor's.
Selfie to remember how these weeks went for me- not feeling well for a lot of them.
On Friday (Sept. 22), Audrey's fever spiked again, so we left Ava and Coen home watching TV, and made the hour drive to the hospital. The chest x-ray was not bad, and Audrey liked putting on the little vest and held nice and still. The bloodwork was so hard. Drawing blood from a 4 year old was awful. Brent held her and held her arm out, while two nurses worked on her, and I held a phone with a show to distract her. She cried and cried but they got it done with two pokes. When we got home, she was proud to tell Ava and Coen, and told them "they took my bleed!"
Recovery and healing time at the beach. Are you seeing a pattern?
Audrey even felt good enough to scooter at our church:
Audrey was able to give her talk in Primary (the week before she was sick), and Brent helped her. She talked about her favorite story, Jonah and the whale.
An ER visit for me on a Monday night- Brent canceled class to take me to get some answers to some symptoms I had been having.
Audrey wanted to snuggle with me in the bed, and she fell asleep like that. Audrey has been very aware of my needs, and wanting to take care of me.
Brent took a little break from the ER and took Audrey to get dinner.
Below: a picture I took on our drive home from the hospital another day after I had a procedure done. This was 3 times in 5 days we were at that hospital - a lot of driving!
To sum up September: lots of sickness, adjusting to our new life in Hawaii, and growth.
