From the Caregiver's HAErt — Danita LaShelle Jones

“Oh, I had that,” said the woman on the other end of the phone line. I had to cancel a meeting I had scheduled because my oldest daughter, whom we fondly refer to as Ladybug, was having a flare…

The familiar number flashed across my phone screen, and I audibly groaned. After a particularly arduous morning dealing with late school buses, forgotten lunches, and a few involved errands, I had finally reached a moment where everything settled. Yet…

I stared down at the incoming text message and completely froze. The beeps from her monitor in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) had finally settled into a consistent rhythm. Although our oldest daughter, whom we lovingly refer to…

I haplessly fell backward on my bed, blew a sharp breath out of my mouth, and stared at the ceiling. We had made it to the middle of the week without any incidents with my oldest daughter, nicknamed Ladybug.

I sat in my idle car and drummed my thumbs on the steering wheel. Another glance at the clock revealed that it was 10:57 a.m. I had three minutes left before it counted as a full day. Part of…

One of my favorite ways to relax at the end of a stressful day is to play games on my phone. I pick games that require minimal strategy and effort. I’m a happy camper if I have to match…

After a losing battle trying to find a comfortable sleeping position, I sat up in bed, maneuvered my laptop around my large, pregnant belly, and started Googling “tips on having twins.” By hour two, I had a wealth of…

By the time my husband and I added a set of twins to our already rambunctious 5- and 2-year-old, family and friends appropriately named our house “the Circus.” Sure, there were families out there with way more kids than…

There I was again, speaking with hushed tones into my cellphone as I talked my husband through the tangled wires I knew he was digging into on my side of the bed. “What else do you need, babe?” he…

In retrospect, I took a lot for granted. My 12-year-old daughter, whom we affectionally refer to as Ladybug, has probably seen more doctors than the average child her age. Although her visits started with the discovery of a rare…

Of all the places to have a meltdown, mine happened in the parking lot of the public library. Last summer, my daughter, whom we affectionately call Ladybug, was hospitalized several times overnight due to hereditary angioedema (HAE). When…