Skip to main content

A Blessing? I'll Take It.

It might be a blessing in disguise, the oral/speech therapist said to me today. Perhaps it can be a good thing that little man is refusing a bottle since his surgery. He had to give it up sometime. Why not now? 

Since the surgery, he has been adamantly, no, vehemently refusing a bottle.  No way! Get that instrument of torture away from me he exclaims! He had a bad experience in the hospital and blames the bottle. Trauma runs deeper then the conscious level. 

Is my baby really done with all this? I remember when I weaned Nika from nursing. (At 2 yrs old!!!) I had to quit her cold turkey because I got sick and my breast-milk was filled with nasty meds. I think it was harder for me then for her. She suddenly seemed so grown up, so independent from me. Although Leo quit nursing from me on his own way back, it never felt like quitting all the way. I still gave him bottles and held him as he gurgled and chugged them in. 

Now after all that....to this? 



Like my orchid, my children grow and bloom how and when they will. For little man, his progress has hinged on physical trauma, and fear. But also it has hinged on taking the chance of hope. And working at it.  

And the results, have been a thousandfold. Yes he bears the scars of a survivor. But, he carries a suitcase filled with medical reports and doubts that have all been proven null. And each trial, each suffering, has also opened a new door. 




And though we might feel a pang for the baby he is growing out of, I wouldn't, even for all the money in the world, keep him from entering a new door. Ok little man, it's your story, and I'm just writing it down. You want to say goodbye to bottles?  Ok. I'm with you. All the way.


Comments

  1. Leo looks so amazingly different! ...Want you to know I am following your blog and my heart goes out to your family.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your little 'lion man' is so amazing! Like you guys told me. With each new step Leo seems to make leaps and bounds. Emilee Smalley

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. He is just adorable. Glad to read that he is recovering well. That is one tough lion. :)About to try to take away the pacifier with my almost three year old, and not sure how that's going to go! Probably is easier when they decide to give something up on their own. ;)
    Tina

    ReplyDelete
  5. How is little lion? I miss him.. Hope everything is ok with him.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

With Mixed Feelings

So for the past couple weeks my feed has been filled with the "back to school" and "end of summer" and "beginning of parental freedom from their annoying offspring" photos. It's ok, I totally get it. Another year, another back to school pic, another notch in the door jamb, and another chapter of growth and development with junior. Look at him go! Or not, as the case may be for many children. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease control and Prevention) one in six children has one...a developmental disability. A stamp of "not normal" across their foreheads. A number. A check mark in a box. My kid is one of them. I heard a brief segment on NPR that enticingly started out with the title of developmental delays on the rise, a 17% increase over the last twelve years. And though I turned up the volume the segment only talked about how it's probably only due to poverty, and it's only the upper classes that actually pursue diagnosis...

Pharmaceutical Fallout

"Back to the hospital?! You're joking right?!" I'm sure you guys are wondering what's been up with the Lion this past week after our worrisome VEEG adventure.  To tell you the truth, I feel like I've been taking shots of Leo's drugs and consequently feel dull and numb and just plain depressed. That is now of course, two days ago I was running high on adrenalin and resembled a charging rhino. I'll tell you why: So after being put on his new drug, Trileptal, Leo definitely started having a cessation of seizure activity, unfortunately however, he also started having severe headaches, photophobia, inconsolable crying and then in the last couple of days, a rash on his thighs, face, and hands. Just as an FYI the word "rash" is a magic word that will open the doors of the medical castle faster and slicker than a trojan horse. It's true, one does not mess about with allergic reactions. Day 1 Day 2 (rash got progressively ang...

The School Bus As Metaphor

A school bus can mean all sorts of different things: dread, boredom, excitement, responsibility, change...it means something different to all of us. I was primarily homeschooled as a kid, and though I preferred that, there was still an element of desire and curiosity for me every time I saw a school bus when I was young.  I couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like to be part of the school bus world. Of course I didn't have to wonder about it for very long because I did, in many ways, have the ideal education. There was that time I took the winter off from school instead of summer to practice my extra curricular work which was...downhill skiing and snowboarding. Then there was the part-time jobs at the local farms that I was able to do because of my own set and very flexible school hours. To clarify, because it sounds like I didn't do any academics at all in the above two sentences, I did. Lots. Tons. But I did them efficiently and completely independently, e...