Abbie and I continue our E.T.-Elliot relationship, always seeming to ail at the same time and recovering in synch. This doesn't make it easy on our family, having her needs rise just when I am unable to meet them, but it seems that we are finally both feeling better again.
We have been keeping her on oxygen at night just so she can sleep soundly, which also gives us a better chance at some decent sleep as well. Her heart rates have been falling, with sleep rates into the 60s and awake rates around 100. I take this as a sign of relaxation and calm, which is encouraging.
Her diet is going well, except for some brotherly complaints about an increase in the number of stinky, poopy diapers every day. Hey - a newborn diet begets newborn diapers, what can I say?
We had a good PT/OT session today. One of her goals is to assist in transfers by standing up on the footplates of her wheelchair. She was able to bend her legs nicely to get in the right position to do this, and the ease of this is increasing as well. Honestly, I spent the whole session talking to the resident who was observing. I'd started to tell Lynette about Abbie's superb report card last week, when she said, "Wait! We have a resident coming...start telling me when he gets here so he can hear the whole thing." I believe I answered, "OK, so he can think 'this mom is crazy!'" But, I did wait until he arrived to start my spiel about how her voltage has risen 9 points in two weeks. Instead of a confused look, his eyes lit up. Turns out he is training to be a pediatric neurodevelopmentalist, a very new specialty. He longs to find options to offer kids with autism and CP, and felt that it had to be electrical somehow, since the brain is one giant electrical organ.
The best summation of our conversation was his comment, "Wow! It sounds like I need to go to Dallas and meet Dr. Tennant!!" I was thrilled to see a future specialist "get it"! I told him how much hope it gives me and how much families like mine are depending on physicians like him to bring new technologies and opportunities into reality for our kids.
I will never have the mind of a physicist or have a PhD after my name, but I am more than content to be a gardener, planting little seeds as I go, trusting in God to bring the harvest.
1 comment:
It is such a pleasure to read good things about Abbie! I spend 5 minutes every morning with my coffee and thoughts of Abbie. I read her status pages over and over and I'm always amazed at the progress, even though I've read the entries before. What a beautiful gift God gave all of us when he gave you Abbie.
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