On Sunday afternoon, Sadie came to me and said her earring felt too tight. I looked, and the back of her ear had dried blood on it. I asked Jimmy to have a look and he said “Oh, it looks like the backing of your earring fell off.” I knew there was no way her earring would stay in without the backing, so I prodded at it a little and saw the the back was completely inside her ear lobe. Ugh.

She was really hesitant to let us touch her ear because it was tender. We both tried, but had no luck getting the back of her earring out of her ear. It was stuck. We had church that night, and I asked Sadie if my sister could look at it. Sadie adores her aunt Hannah and really trusts her, so we had Hannah have a look.

Hannah also tried to poke around and at this point, Sadie’s earring back started to come out of the front of her ear and was bleeding. We abandoned the mission and I called Sadie’s doctor on our way home from church. They advised going to the ER to have the backing removed ASAP to avoid infection.

Jimmy and I would have both liked to be with Sadie, but we didn’t have anyone to watch Mordecai (every single grandparent–Jimmy’s mom and step dad, his dad and step mom, and my parents–were all on vacation!) so we asked her to choose a parent while the other stayed with Mordecai. We definitely didn’t want to bring a toddler into the ER past his bedtime for no reason. Sadie chose me to take her, so when we got home from church Jimmy put Mordecai to bed and she and I headed right back out.

I’ve never felt so alone as a parent. I knew Jimmy couldn’t be with us and that was okay. I knew no grandparents were around to help and that was okay. I just had to do this on my own with Sadie. I think the hardest thing was anticipating what she was going to go through and knowing I had to witness that and comfort her alone, you know? It felt like one of those times where I wanted my mom but I was the mom! It was a moment of growth for me as a parent.

Sadie and I packed a bag with her Nintendo Switch, a book for me, water, snacks, and a hoodie because I knew we were in for a long night. We went to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh and spent 2.5 hours in the waiting room.

Those 2.5 hours were hard! But they were also sweet. I definitely cried a few times seeing really sick kids come into the waiting room (hello, pregnancy hormones making me emotional). I never like going into the ER or even doctor’s office because I know we’re exposing ourselves to germs and sickness, but we didn’t have any other option. I prayed a lot, just taking things moment by moment as we waited.

Sadie was such a good girl. She taught me how to play Pokemon and I showed her my Mario Kart skills. It was a sweet one-on-one bonding time together that we don’t often get. Finally, at 11:30pm, we were called back to a room.

We were both tired by this point! A doctor came in to assess the situation and didn’t have much luck getting the back out since Sadie’s ear was so tender. She asked if we could get her other earring back out so she could see what it looked like to know what we were digging for. It was then that we noticed that earring back was also lodged into her ear. Yikes!

The doctor had a nurse come in and give Sadie some Motrin and put numbing cream on her ear. The nurse was so sweet! She brought us snacks and the card game Uno and taught us how to play. We had so much fun sitting together on the bed while learning to play Uno!

We were tired? Exhausted! Was I feeling that first trimester “morning” sickness (that hits me in the evening this pregnancy 🥴)? Very much so. Eventually we just snuggled under a blanket and Sadie fell asleep. The numbing cream wasn’t quite “enough” for Sadie to not feel the doctor pulling on her ear so she recommended she try a dose of Versed, which is drug meant to relax patients. Sadie took that, they put more numbing cream on her ear, and then she fell asleep again.

Then the doctor came in and started to try and pull the earrings off while Sadie was asleep. She eventually woke up and we had to have me and a nurse hold her down while the doctor pulled each earring out… but it was DONE! Hallelujah!

I did not like holding down my own child while she was screaming in pain. Ugh. It was one of those things where I knew it was good in the end (her ears wouldn’t have earring backs lodged into them and she wouldn’t get an infection) but was really, really awful in the moment. I was thinking that this is probably how God feels when He sees His children go through times of suffering that, in the end, produces growth.

Anyways, once the earrings were out, they gave her a popsicle, put ointment on her ears, and bandaged them up. She was so pitiful.

She was exhausted, scared, completely out of it from the medication, and hurting. It broke my heart. We were thankfully able to go home at this point, which was a blessing! She was way too wobbly to walk, so I pushed her out in a wheelchair.

We finally got home in the wee hours of the morning and crashed… only to start a new day a couple of hours later with a toddler that had a full night of sleep. Not the best start to the week for mama, haha.

The doctor told me that Versed would pretty much wipe Sadie’s memory once she took it and it really did. She woke up the next morning confused about why she had bandages on her ears and asked a lot of questions about what happened. She remembered the waiting room and playing Uno, but mostly everything else was extremely foggy for her. I think this was a good thing?

Maybe it would have been beneficial for her to have a memory of it to be able to process what happened. But at the same time, it would have been a really traumatic memory. It’s definitely a traumatic memory for me. I still feel so upset about what she went through. It was just hard, you know?

I do feel bad that she no longer can wear earrings. She had her ears pierced together with her cousin in April and all of her friends at church have theirs pierced. I know she will now feel left out… but sweet Sadie said she wanted to give all of her earrings to her cousins and friends. I learn so much from this little girl every day. Like how was her first reaction to just give away all of her prized earrings? She’s the coolest.

She’s allowed to get her ears re-pierced in the future, but I honestly doubt she will. She told Jimmy “Maybe when I’m 100 years old.” 😆 We think this whole ordeal happened because she wore a pair of earrings that were front-heavy and kind of pulled the backing into her ear over time without her realizing it.

We took things slow the next day and it was a good reminder for me to, well, slow down. I was tired! Running on a few hours of sleep, parenting two children (one of whom was trying to figure out what happened to her), still having to take care of Etsy orders, running an errand for therapy work with Niva, and also trying to process what we went through made me get through the day in pure survival mode. But it was okay because I cherished the fact that we weren’t in the hosiptal. That my children are healthy. That emergecy rooms exist. That doctors work tirelessly. That we could go to bed at 8:30pm instead of 3:00am!

It’s all about finding sweetness in the bitter. I got to spend time one-on-one with Sadie, albeit in a weird and hard situation, but we made the best of it together. I didn’t have anyone to lean on but God and that was a huge reminder to fully rely on Him when I’m feeling lonely and weak. Most importantly, I was there for my daughter. And I always will be.

What was the situation where you found sweetness in the bitter?