The SpecialMoms Parenting Magazine Issue 5 | Page 24
She’s a sparrow when she’s broken,
to vomit periodically we decided to take her to the walk
in clinic one night where she was misdiagnosed with a
mild case of the West Nile Virus. We were told to let it
run it’s course for about two weeks.
debilitating diagnoses like Bethany has,
can you explain to us how you deal with
this on a daily basis?
When Bethany began losing her balance and falling
shortly after that diagnosis we thought she might have
some kind of ear infection. We even thought she might
have carbon monoxide poisoning because we had been
having trouble with our furnace and her symptoms
matched. We actually had all the kids tested for that
just in case, but the tests were all negative. We took
Bethany to our regular doctor who took one look at
her walk and immediately sent us to the hospital for a
scan of her brain where she was diagnosed with a mass
in her cerebellum. Later that same day we found ourselves in an ambulance on the way to a larger hospital
for surgery to remove the tumor. Thank God that we
finally got the correct diagnosis because the hydrocephalus that the tumor was causing was actually killing her.
She would not have lived much longer than a day or
two.
At first I held high hopes that Bethany would eventually heal from her brain injury and go back to being
her old self again. When it became obvious that that
was not going to happen I began to get angry that God
wasn’t answering my prayers and healing her. I still
don’t understand why He has chosen to allow Bethany
to suffer in this way but I do know that I eventually
found great peace in surrendering to the fact that this
was our life now. Call it a crutch but I MUST believe
that some day I’ll be able to ask God why, that it will
all make perfect sense and that it will have been for a
grand and noble and magnificent reason! That is the
only way I can deal with it! That and not taking her
aggression personally!
Is there anything that you’d like others to
know about your child?
My wis