By Laura Heuer

Do you ever walk around thinking life is just great? The kids are healthy; we have enough money to put food on the table…and life is sweet? Don’t get me wrong, catch me on a bad day and I will tell you how my kids are digging my grave! But you know what I mean when life is good.

I used to think this every day until God threw us a curve ball. Nope it was a slider…a ball I have never seen before and hope to never again! No book, no TV show, not even my mother’s intuition could prepare us for this.

The Slider

Now, the problem started as something small (as most things do). My son loves Halloween and it was his third grade Halloween party. Halloween day he woke up with a fever. I figured it was strep throat, something antibiotics should take care of. We thought the worst thing about it was that my son missed the Halloween festivities.

But scary things often happen on Halloween, and, unfortunately, we were in for the fright of our life. My son’s fever turned into a bigger illness. He developed a rash. We went to the doctor again and changed the medication. It seemed OK at first, but then my son couldn’t breathe. We went to the doctor, and I can still feel the chills that went down my spine through this ordeal.

The doctor gave my son a shot and some medicine. We thought things would get better. But that’s when things got much, much worse.

Things got Worse

My son began to get headaches that would wake him in the middle of the night. His skin was so sensitive he could not touch his own bed sheets. His teachers would thank me for keeping him home and the doctors would tell me he had to go to school. Yikes!  This was a crazy and scary time. I did not know where to go, or where to turn. Most of all, I did not know how to make my son feel better. I wanted to take his pain away.

The End in Sight

For us, there was an end in sight. We were very lucky. The symptoms slowly began to go away. A neurologist said it could be viral meningitis but the only way to be sure would be a spinal tap. Since the majority of symptoms disappeared, the recommendation was to hold off on the spinal tap. My son now lives with chemical sensitivities, which seem to be lessening. We haven’t needed anymore medications. We might, someday. I try not to think about what might happen. We just live day-to-day.  I now think that life is sweet again!

Bat Away!

My biggest lesson with our scare is that you have to face the adversary.  When you are thrown curve balls or crazy slider balls you can’t just stand there and watch yourself strike out. You need to bat away and pray that you make a connection, any kind of connection! Be an advocate for your loved one. Be your loved one’s best advocate. Write down symptoms, medication, have the doctor’s phone numbers handy.  Never let that curve ball get the best of you.

Laura is a mom of three boys who play baseball and wife to a husband who is a Cubs fan.