Unfortunately, after two days, Izzy’s symptoms continued to show up. Her fever would come back and they would fight it. Her skin would get red and she’d become lethargic and unresponsive again.
When the doctor called in resources we realized we were dealing with something more serious. Our daughter didn’t have Lyme’s disease, and whatever it was, it was slowly killing her.
Chapter 2
Miranda
I swore it had to be a nightmare. There was no way that this could be happening to our healthy little girl. She hadn’t acted sick, or anything that would have led to this outcome.
A mother’s biggest fear is losing one of her children. From the very moment when you discover something is wrong, all you want to do is take whatever they’re suffering from away. You begin to pray, to plead silently in your mind, to whoever will listen.
Having Bella changed my life. She’d made me want to be a better person, a mother, and even a wife.
When panic sets in, you almost lose awareness of anything else that could be going on. I knew the boys were somewhere around, but I didn’t remember seeing them. All I was focused on was my daughter, lying in that freezing cold tub, with red skin. She was so still and unresponsive. The more we tried to get her to speak, the more worried we became when it didn’t happen.
I knew I was shaking, imagining the thought of this being so serious. With three kids, we were always passing colds back and forth to one another. That was nothing new. This, however, was different. This was like nothing I’d ever seen before.
In a matter of hours our bubbly daughter had become so ill. She needed to get to a hospital and I feared that her life depended on it.
Normally, when I saw Ty’s mom just storming in the house I’d get a little irritated. She had a habit of doing that.
Except when I saw her running in with that frightened look across her face, I knew she was going through the same emotions that I was. That motherly instinct was there and all she knew how to do was protect the people that she loved.
She’d seen the paramedics pulling up and probably heard the sirens. I can’t imagine what she must have thought was going on.
I watched the men swiftly grabbing her and putting her on the stretcher to carry her out to the ambulance. Ty was there, watching in disbelief, like someone had stabbed him in the heart.
I wanted to run to him; to cry against his chest and hold onto hope through the comfort of being close to him, but I couldn’t. I had to stay close to Bella.
Before I knew it, we were pulling away from the farm. I watched out of the tiny glass doors as the dirt road got smaller and further away.
My brother’s truck appeared, and I knew he’d grabbed Ty and was following us to the hospital. With the paramedics still taking her vitals, I leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Momma’s here, Bella. You’re goin’ to be okay, sweetie. Just rest.”
I didn’t want her to rest, in fear that she wasn’t going to wake up. I know it was horrible to think that, but to look at her, to see her so unresponsive, I couldn’t bring myself to accept that she was going to be fine. I knew whatever was happening was serious.
The paramedic turned to me and smiled as he listened to her pulse. When he removed his fingers and jotted down her results, I sat there, waiting for some sign of hope. “Do you have any idea what’s happenin’ to her?”
“No, ma’am. I’ve seen children with fevers react differently. Does she suffer from any other kind of illness? Is anyone in your family sick?”
I shook my head. “No. I’ve never seen this in my life.”
The ambulance bumped around the road as we drove, and I held onto the handle while reaching over and placing my other hand on my daughter’s arm.
“We’ll be at the hospital in about ten minutes. She’s in good hands, ma’am.”
I hoped that he was right. “You hear that Bella? He says you’re in good hands, honey. Just hold on.”
When she didn’t even budge I began to sob. How was I supposed to hold onto hope when I was watching her fading away? It’s unrealistic to think that in this type of circumstance anyone can sit there and be optimistic. Her body was a different color, she was burning up, and hadn’t been responsive. This wasn’t a normal action for a kid. It wasn’t normal for anyone.
I could tell we were pulling into the hospital when the ambulance made a sharp turn and went over a traffic calming hump. I braced myself for the vehicle to stop and waited as the paramedic opened the rear exit doors. “Hop on out and step to the side.”
I did as he told me and watched as they made sure Bella was strapped and ready to be transported inside of the hospital.