I knew when I wrote that last post I was playing with fire — mentioning how Gracie had been hospitalized right around her birthday every year since the year she turned two. True, she doesn’t have a bone infection this year (that we know of), so that’s something, but the intractable diarrhea that has plagued Gracie for three weeks now has not gotten better.

Tonight, Gracie had blood in her diapers. Three diapers in a row were tinged with rusty red. I texted a gross picture to her doctor, who said to go to the ER if she had a fever or abdominal pain. Ha! Abdominal pain. That’s funny. I’m sure that if Gracie could feel pain her stomach would have been very sore this whole time. I had to call the doc out on it and she realized her mistake. She said to go to the ER with fever or if my mommy gut said something was wrong. That’s a problem, too, though, because my mommy gut knows something is wrong. I’m just not sure it’s wrong enough that we would get help at a hospital. (The doctor was really trying to warn me of the dangers of perforation in the intestinal tract. I don’t think Gracie is perforated; she would be deathly ill if she were and I’m sure she would be acting much sicker. Still, it’s worrisome and it’s possible since she’s had so much diarrhea.)

The kicker of it is that Gracie’s birthday party is tomorrow. Fifteen little kids, all their accompanying adults, and Princess Sofia will be at our house tomorrow afternoon. We have been preparing for it all week and Gracie is super excited. She just can’t go to the ER, at least not until after her party. It’s not right, it’s not fair, and it just can’t happen. It just can’t. This little girl deserves to have a great party with all her friends.

So, karma gods, I’m sorry for posting about all the times Gracie was in the hospital right around her birthday. I should know better than to tempt fate like that — it’s bad enough that I planned an event that can’t be cancelled. All I ask is that my little girl be able to enjoy her special day. And that she doesn’t perforate.