how do you spell vacation?
(S-E-I-Z-U-R-E)
((hannah and me, part twenty-six))


it's a phone call a parent never wants to receive. one that i surely wasn't aware of how much i didn't want to receive it until i became a parent. a phone call alerting you to your child being in danger. a phone call that comes out of nowhere. a phone call telling you that you need to come...fast.

it's a phone call that i didn't ask for, that no parent does, but i got anyway thursday morning. i dropped off hannah at school that morning and all was fine. normal. routine in every way. we talked about the beach. we talked about it so much that she didn't want to go to school and i didn't want to go to work. i left her thinking the next time i would see her would be around 3:00 and we'd head home to pack up the truck and go. well, it wasn't. at about 10:15, my phone rang and i was busy with a customer so i didn't pick it up. about two minutes later, the same number rang again and i answered the call. on the other end was a frantic interim children's place director telling me that hannah had suffered a seizure on the playground...

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i was told that she was ok. that she had stopped shaking. that her eyes were no longer in the back of her head. that at this point, she was just without color and scared. and i was out the door.

i have no idea what i told jason and muffley as i headed out of the store and toward hannah. i remember calling heath and telling him i was leaving the store. i remember trying to get in touch with sarah and failing, and i remember trying to process the information i had just received without throwing up all over myself. the two previous times hannah had been rushed to children's were under sarah's watch. one of the times i was in freaking huntsville. this time, it was sarah that was stuck an hour away and nowhere near reachable. it would've helped had i tried calling tuscaloosa instead of the uab numbers i was blowing up, but like i mentioned, my mind was all over the place.

i made it to the church to find hannah in the warm arms of her favorite teacher, ms. malinda. at first glance at both of their faces, i couldn't tell who was more scared. hannah immediately came to me and i got the full story of the events on the playground from malinda and donna and proceeded to take hannah to the doctor. never having done this before and not being able to get in touch with sarah, i called marie and she pointed me toward's children's hospital. i got confirmation from hannah's pediatrician that this was the right call and we were off. the tribute is pretty fast when i push the pedal down hard. all the while, hannah was coming back to her usual self. she knew something weird had happened. she knew that this wasn't how the day was supposed to go. more than anything else, she really just wanted to know if we could go to the beach.

we made it to an empty children's emergency room and almost immediately went back. by this time, it was about 10:50 and hannah was fine. she was checked by a resident and the doctor in charge and given a clean bill of health. she had not been sick prior to whatever happened on the playground. she regained use of her faculties almost immediately. thus, they decided that no further testing would be needed that morning. i was surprised to learn that, evidently, kids hannah's age are allowed one "freebie", however weird that sounds, when it comes to seizures. they told me that it could very easily be a stand-alone event. we are just to watch her. not leave her alone in the bath. not leave her unattended on the monkey bars or anything else high. things that we shouldn't do anyway but that we may have taken for granted had thursday morning not happened.

poor hannah, her little three year-old mind was completely one track. she asked the doctors four separate times, "so, we can't go to the beach?" they assured her and me that we could and we went. for the most part, we had a wonderful time. hannah had a blast and was a very helpful big cousin. she is going to be a marvelous big sister. this morning, as i reflect once again on last thursday morning, it makes me even more disappointed that the last twelve hours of our trip were rendered uncomfortable and awkward due to hurt feelings of some sort.

those last twelve hours are easiest to taste, now, one day removed. for the greater part, though, we had a marvelous time. and those marvelous memories will rise to the surface soon.

the beach was fine. more importantly, hannah is fine. i am crossing my fingers for her that the events of thursday morning are, indeed, stand-alone. i am thankful that somehow, i took care of her that morning in a way that made her mom proud.

it's a phone call that no parent ever wants. a phone call that alerts you that your child is in danger. a phone call that, as a parent, i am sure to have again.

but i don't want it. you're the best, baby girl.