Inheritance

 What a whirlwind this last two weeks have been.  Last week was homecoming week at EVHS, so Shylar was attending a lot of events as a sophomore nominee for Homecoming Queen of her class.  The night of the Homecoming Football game was the night of reckoning.  We all wanted her to win and I was praying her dream would come true.  The competition was stiff so I was afraid to hope for too much, but then the announcer call Shylar’s name as Homecoming Queen for the sophomores.  All of us were so happily surprised that we were jumping, screaming, and crying all at once.  I’m so happy for her.  She was beautiful in her flowing red velvet dress with a train the flowed behind her.  She looked so happy as she waved at the crowd from the back of a red truck driving her and the sophomore king for a victory lap. I cannot be prouder of all that she has accomplished this Fall.  

While this was going on I was receiving calls and texts from Isabella about the rash on her knee which had been recently operated on to replace a ligament necessary to hold her knee cap in place.  She sent me pictures of it for at least 4 days, and her mother sent me some text asking what should be done.  She didn’t do the things I suggested, and so Izzy ended up in the hospital with a serious strep infection.  The doctors did surgery the very next day (Sunday) to wash it out and placed a wound vac in it to drain any infectious fluid.  They placed her on 2 broad spectrum antibiotics, and strong meds to mange her pain.  They did surgery again yesterday to wash it out a second time and  ensure the joint was not infected.  She was given the ok to go home today on an antibiotic effective against the bacterial strain of strep and discharged around 3:00 pm.  

In the meantime, last Friday, the day of the Homecoming Football game, I received a call from the elementary school that Alyseia was complaining of a stomach ache and had a temp of 101.3 so I had to go pick her up from school.  She was insistent that she was going to be well enough to attend the football game and watch her sister be named Homecoming Queen, and she was.  Her improved health was short-lived though, so after half-time her mom and I took her home and put her to bed.  She spiked temps and was lethargic most of the time for the next 6 days.  Today is the first day she hasn’t ran a fever, but the mouth sores she has had for the last several days persist.  Although there has been some improvements, her tongue and the roof of her mouth are still sore so her appetite is minimal.  She’s hungry but she is afraid to eat anything substantial because of the pain. We alternate Tylenol and Ibuprofen and use the lidocaine solution, but they only help temporarily.  I hope she is markedly improved tomorrow.  It’s hard watching her be uncomfortable..

Because I’ve had to take Shylar to school and be at the hospital for Isabella, I had to ask Alyseia’s mom, my daughter, to come watch her.  However, she is not reliable and tends to fall asleep leaving Alyseia to fend for herself, so Alyseia gets frightened because she feels like she’s not really being cared for. Alyseia was also mad at her for not really spending time with her. Today was the first day I could be with her all day which turned out to be a good thing since her mother didn’t show up here until 3:30 in the afternoon.  I left Alyseia with her to take Shylar to the store and while I was gone she called me because mom invited some friends over and that concerned her. Turns out one of them was her Uncle Josh, a known drug user, and someone else we didn’t know.  Mom sent them out through the garage when Shylar and I pulled up.  That just tells me she and they were up to no good. When is my daughter going to give up her addiction that pulls her into self destruction??? …And in front of her 8 year old daughter.