The Doctor Will See You Now

Day 160:

Rough night, Boy'O.  What started out as a slight cold has turned itself into heavy chest congestion and is making breathing for you absolutely miserable.  You continually woke up, though never with a fever, just a labored breathing and raspy cough.  Your throat is bothering you so you're not crying, but you are restless and crabby...

Mommy broke all the rules and brought you to our bed around 4:00am; the idea being to keep an eye on you and see to it that you get some sleep.  It seemed to work because you slept through until the 6:00am alarm.  After that it was a matter of getting you an appointment with the Pediatricians at Pediatric Partners of Fairfax and getting you there.  Mommy was able to open her calendar a bit and so she decided to take it..

Being as how it's my duty to take you to daycare each day I've grown accustomed to doing so.  Walking out the door for work with little more than my briefcase felt odd.  Naked even...  I thought about so many things on my way to work, Conor.  Normally I share a quick anecdote with you about whatever I hear on the radio regarding the Redskins, the Nationals, the Capitals, whoever.  I'm a hometown kid at the end of the day, and this habit is a kind of introduction into my passion for sports and competition.   I hope you one day share this passion with me son.  Whether it be racing motocross, playing baseball, riding skateboards, or extreme basket weaving, I want you to be passionate Conor.  Those who are typically find what they're looking for...
eh hem, tangent......

So, to the point of telling you a story each day about a moment, a player, an iconic figure, what have you, I heard something on the radio and I wanted to tell you what I thought about it, but you weren't there...  I said a little prayer that you're feeling better tomorrow and that we'll be back to our old ways; me and you driving down the road...

By the time you and Mommy had gotten through the Doctor's appointment, they'd run a battery of tests on you to ensure you didn't have RSV, then after shoving what could have been a hundred tools up your nose ultimately determined it's just a bad chest cold and the only prescription is a nebulizer and Children's Tylenol for the sore throat.

These last 5 months have been ones of a myriad of new experiences and wild, pendulum like emotions I never knew I could ever experience.  I've learned so much about myself, Son.  You've taught me a humility I would have never known without knowing you.  I've also learned that I can be rice-paper fragile or as powerful and as unstoppable as a freight train.  Today was a day of high emotion as well as great thanks.

I'll end tonight's piece on this note, Conor.  From NICU to now you've powered through tubes and censors and monitors and  surgery and doctors and nurses and things that can be so daunting!  But only now have you caught your first little chest cold, not exactly a show stopper for the Lion Heart.  Impressive really, and certainly beatable...

Feel better, Boy'O.  I'll be administering your nebulizer again at midnight and then, with any luck, you'll wake up tomorrow with a clear head, an open chest, and we can get back to talking about the Redskins...  There's an OTA tomorrow you know... More to come.

I love you, Conor.
-Dad