THANK YOU, TAXPAYERS, FOR YOUR MONEY WELL SPENT

Matt and I sometimes shake our heads at the amount of money that has gone into saving the life of our baby. If we were in the States, we would have lost our home and had to declare bankruptcy. Thankfully, here in Canada, there were costs that we had to pay, and ongoing costs like Lauren's many meds, but they are nothing compared to what it could have been.

One of the things that we do know the exact cost for is the RSV shots that Lauren got throughout the winter. She got three sets of two shots, each shot cost a whopping $1500! There is a tight screening process for kids to qualify for the shots and usually babies with cardiac failure or cystic fibrosis end up qualifying. It sucked to have to get Lauren poked so many times but she stayed healthy all season long.

On Monday, Elysha and I took Lauren to visit the ICU and drop off Timbits. One of Lauren's primary nurses is moving away and we wanted to see her again before she left (I told Lauren that Princess Carrie - as we call her in our family - leaving means that she is not allowed to go back into the ICU since her other primary nurse/family hero has already left). It is always so exciting to take Lauren in to show the staff just how well she is doing since they cared for her so amazingly well for so long last year. While we were there, I was speaking to Dr. Jeff, an amazing fellow (that's a doctor level) who seems to always be there, and he said that all of the children who got the RSV shots managed to avoid having to come back to the ICU even though this was a particularly bad RSV season.

That information made me so glad that Lauren was able to get the shots. Though Lauren was safe this year, my dear friend in Switzerland ended up spending many nights in hospital with her son (my godson!) who, at only weeks old, caught RSV. It was scary for a few days but, praise the Lord, he was able to go home and continue to spend all of his time just being cute.

So, thank you taxpayers, for my daughter's life and the fact that she had a home to come back to after the hospital. And thank you for the money that continues to be spent on her. There is no amount that I wouldn't spend to have Lauren with us, but it is nice that we live in a place where we all pitch in to help those who need it.