Mama Bear

(This is a real picture taken from our neighbors camera earlier this week)

This post will cover multiple issues in the last week of our crazy family life! For those of you who know where we live you aren't surprised to learn that we spot bears several times a year strolling through our yard or on the roads. NJ loves their black bears and does so much to protect them. You have NEVER seen a more fired up group of yankee red necks than when NJ is about to allow a period of black bear hunting. Anyway, lately we have had a couple of "too close for comfort" bear spottings. The first came as I was about to stroll down the driveway to get the mail (my only outing of the house some days and I really look forward to it!), I heard a crash in our garage, turned frozen in place to watch a bear stroll out carrying a bag of garbage in it's mouth. I did not know that Brian had forgotten to close the garage on his way to work and I guess the lure of dirty diapers was too much for the bear to resist. I will leave out the dramatics of how I felt but it was very scary and involved my life flashing before my eyes. The bear was happy as can be though, sat on the edge of our yard eating garbage.

After lots of discussion with Nicole we decided to buy some bear repellent and keep the babies closer to home until it arrives, surely they would be safe in the driveway right? A week passes by and in my never ending to-do list researching bear repellent fell way down to the bottom. This past Friday Brian and I were upstairs discussing Jackson's healthcare (more on that later) when I spotted a bear strolling around the front yard. Not too shocking until I saw a cub and then another cub. Even though I have only lived in bear infested lands for a year I know this is not a good situation. I also knew that the house was blissfully quiet - which meant there was no baby inside. I think for the first time my "mama" instincts took over. I ran downstairs taking a quick sweep of all rooms to confirm there was no one inside, checked the back deck through the windows as I ran to the garage, scanned the garage and realized all strollers were accounted for so that meant the babies were somewhere very close to home and in the front yard. As I turned down the driveway (that is miles long it seems - really its crazy long) I saw Neva's toy car and Matthew's walker at the end, empty, with no one in sight. And yes the bears were still just chilling in the front yard eating leaves. At that point I knew the babies were safe, there would be signs if something had happened, but I couldn't find them. Ran down the driveway yelling for Nicole, crying, trying to figure out if she had hidden them in the woods, trying to think like Nicole would think! I saw our neighbors garage was open and it clicked that she was in there with them. As I was running over she came out, we all hugged and cried as she told me how the mama bear had seen them and was not happy about it. That she had started walking towards them so Nicole grabbed babies and ran! Then I thanked her for saving my babies lives and sent her home early figuring she would call to quit at some point that weekend. Anyway...very scary but surprising how clearly you can think in a moment like that. Also surprising how I knew they were safe but that didn't make me feel one smidge better until I laid my eyes on them and saw it myself.

That prompted me to go inside immediately and order my bear repellent. Hopefully we won't run into any bears as angry as the package shows but if so we are ready.

Oh and as a side note, I got a call later in the evening that my order couldn't be shipped to a NJ address. NJ doesn't allow wildlife items to be ordered online. Seriously? This place is in love with their wildlife, whether it be people or animals! So now it's going to SC and then coming my way.

Next, I was also playing the role of a mama bear in the last week. Growing up we were all taught to be nice, it gets you places in life right? Sadly in the medical/healthcare world it doesn't work that way. We have been working for two weeks to schedule Jackson's next GI / ENT appointments at CHOP with no success. They want us to gather tons of medical records, fax over all of his documentation, and then give them two weeks to review before we are offered an appointment. After a few hours of thinking on that I called back to tell them no, it wasn't going down that way, figure out another way to make this happen. Another call from CHOP a few days later and good news! They will gather the paperwork for me and they have secured us a GI appointment on October 25th and ENT appointment on November 7th. I didn't even have to think about that one, my immediate response was no, go back to your scheduler and figure something else out. We will not wait that long for him to be seen. After some heated conversation exchanges I finally said to her what we all know is true "Listen, we spent 4 months at your facility, I know the drill. The mama screaming the loudest gets what she wants. I will be that mama screaming in your ear until I get what I want for Jackson".

Jackson is going to Philadelphia this Thursday (8/25) for his GI appointment and he will be headed to the operating room with his ENT surgeon September 6th, two weeks from today. Some things are worth the fight and the screaming.