Three holidays came and went, although quiet and somewhat somber for the first time. A few weeks after my last blog post, my grandmother past away right before Thanksgiving. We were planning to be at my sister's place this year. Instead, it was spent without my mother, who was away for the first time in Dominican Republic for her mother's funeral. My in-laws came over with home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner in tow, thank God. I really wasn't up to traveling anywhere since I was doubly upset for not being able to fly out to be with my mom, because of my foot and for the lack of funds to get there anyway. We did have a nice time thanks to my understanding in-laws :-). Soon after was Travis's birthday at the end of November, which was a good time with some cousins that were over that day.
Then came the surgery which was not scheduled until December 3rd. Boy was that a trip for me! I stayed for two nights at the hospital and adjusted to the big, bulky cast I had to wear for a few weeks until I get the lighter, stiffer version. Alano was well aware that I was away. When the boys came to visit me at the hospital with my mom, Travis and my mother-in-law, I had instant tears when I saw their little faces. Alano had the most amazing look of surprise and immediately wanted to climb up on my bed so he could rest his head on my tummy. It was utter bliss but sadness still lingered in my eyes. I told myself that I had to pull through and get home so I can get this recovery thing going already and take care of house and home and my family! Recovery in a hurry...what an oxymoron. No such thing. Everyone has a different definition of what recovery is to them. But in actuality, it's what we accept as being recovered. I put some thought into this just recently and felt that in my conclusion, in order to be REALLY recovered, there are a few steps to take to get to the total completion of recovery. Is it totally physical, emotional and mental? Or is it that we pick one or two of this group? Can I say now, after I'm about to end my six weeks of recovery of the foot surgery that I'm actually recovered? No I'm not and no I won't be. At least not right now. Could I look at Alano the same way when I say that all I want is for him to speak and therefore he's recovered? No I'm not and no he won't be. At least not right now. But there's a thing called hope. And also change to go along with it. I got to rely on both for things to happen.
As you can see, life was what life is and it was lived these past ten weeks. It was my time to deal with my health, something that I had a hard time taking in since I knew I had to put Alano and his time aside with the Path Family Center. But a most unbelievable breakthrough happened two days before the surgery at the monthly meeting I had at home with all of Alano's therapists. I gave the occupational therapist (OT) a Path Family Center business card, the last person to be informed about Alano getting his biomed treatment there in the group. Not only did she hear of the place unlike the other ladies, she was excited to know that I became a member and that I know what biomed treatment is about...just like SHE DID!!! I was gasping the whole time while she explained how she tried to educate other parents about biomedical intervention and of the new center but THEY were the skeptical ones!! AYAYAY! Then she stayed at the end of the meeting to tell me that she had a bad vibe with the speech therapist (ST) and that was the clincher for me. This was something I wanted to do for a long time but was reluctant from losing her since it took three months to find a new OT after the first OT's schedule didn't work out. We all discussed and concluded that Alano had some feeding issues that might possibly be affecting his speech delay. The OT recommended a speech pathologist (SP) who is a specialist at feeding problems. My hope is that she will be able to help with Alano's speech and feeding much better than what I felt the ST did very little of, if at all. We got into bringing more of a sensory approach to his ABA sessions so I put in a request for more time with the OT as well. This was all reinforced by the advice I got from the consult I had (and managed to keep an appointment for, nine days after surgery) with the ABA/special ed teacher & consultant at PFC. It was so worth the effort that from that day on, I buckled down and made the decision to change Alano's IEP (individualized education plan). I finally had the courage to have the ST replaced and got the paperwork going for the new SP and more time with the OT...all before the end of the year :-D!
Other than that, I did get the ball rolling with Alano's first round of bloodwork before Thanksgiving. As of tomorrow, he's going in for the second round, the ION Ig blood test, first thing in the morning. It's going to be a killer for my little guy since he needs an entourage of people to hold him down with Travis. But also, he's been going through a nine day bout of the stomach virus! Plus we have to get a urine sample by attaching a urine bag tonight when he goes to sleep (that's going to be a project) and if possible, a stool sample to send out as well. I can only hope we'll have something substantial to send for tomorrow lol! As for his progress?!! AWESOME!!! I rarely say this overused word but it really has been a beautiful experience to see him grow from the therapy so far! This child of mine loves loves loves counting from one to ten and singing the alphabet song! There was a show on TV about rockets that he was watching intently, especially the countdown from ten to one. Ever since then, he would repeat "1..2..3..2..1.." and wait for me to say "BLAST OFF!!" like a gazillion times after! But I was nudging him back to counting his numbers fully again and the pronunciation of 1-2-3 became much more crystal than the others but he tries everyday. Alano's therapists kept praising him for mastering all his tasks and they cannot believe how meticulous he is with detail and order! I couldn't believe it! Although he's been sick since the first, he's trying the best he can, even if he's getting changed 6 to 7 times a day. There is an issue with this stomach bug thing and how long he's had it. I was worried that I haven't taken him to his pediatrician this whole time, knowing that I wanted this virus to let it run its course (no pun intended 8-P!) and to take care of it as naturally as possible with the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apples & toast as every parent knows!). I also read that it could take up to ten days depending on how bad the child has it. *SIGH*...at least Alano will see the nurse at PFC tomorrow and Travis will be able to address these concerns to her. Most recently on Friday night, we put the radio on in the boys' room and we were just hanging out and bopping along to the club music. I was standing with the crutches trying to do my crippled moves lol when lo and behold, Alano comes running over, grabs two fistfuls of my pants, looks up at me and started dancing as if he knew how to dance formally his whole life! And he was cracking up too! I wanted to fling those crutches across the room and dance the night away with him <8''-}!! Then this past lazy Sunday morning, Alano climbed up onto my bed with this adorable book he's been hooked on lately called Cleo's Counting Book. He loves pointing at the numbers and at the cute cat name Cleo too :-). All of a sudden, his first random three letter word came out! "CAT" he said!!! Over and over, he kept going and he soon had Travis and Legend as part of the grand audience! It was an absolute joy!!
I promise not to let another ten weeks go by so I shall be back before the month is over. The ION test will be the tell all of Alano's problems so I'm pretty excited about it! I've got my own appointment for hopefully good x-ray results that will lead to a stiff cast-off, walkable brace-on event by the end of this week...*sigh* 8-]! Woo freakin' hoo LOL!!
Alano and I, we're both armed, geared up and ready to go, camouflage down and all, to begin Operation Recovery 2010!!! Here's to a good year ahead for us and for our family!
Have a Happy New Year and thank you for reading!
P.S. when Alano feels better, we hope to have an new YouTube video for all to see very soon 8-D!
No comments:
Post a Comment