If I have learned one thing in my short but dramatic life, it’s that life really does work like a rubber ball – it bounces up and down between happy things and sad things before you can even realize what’s going on. I know the mom’s are wishing lately that there would either be a few more happy things or even just that the sad things would be spaced out a little more so they could at least take a breath in between bounces.
I had a new dog. His name was Otis and he was tiny like me, and funny like me and almost as adorable as me. Mama C was really sad about Ellie not being around anymore so Mommy decided to surprise her and found a new puppy for us. Otis came home to us on the Friday night after Ellie went away and we had a really good weekend. But then by Monday he was really sick and the veterinarian told the mom’s that he had something called Parvo, which is very contagious in puppies and means that they can’t live anymore. So, the mom’s had to put him down like Ellie, because by the end he was too sick to even move. The mom’s were surprised at how fast it happened and felt really bad that they weren’t able to do anything else, but knew that it was for the best. Either way, I miss my friend Otis. I actually really liked him – he was very gentle with me (after the first day when he used my foot as a chew toy) and he just scampered around the house making everyone laugh. Poor Otis.
So, that was the sad thing. The problem was it was just one more sad thing on top of a whole lot of other sad things in a short period. Between Grandma dying, me having seizures, Ellie dying and then Otis dying, it has been a hard 6 weeks for the mom’s. Mama C decided that it was time for a little reality break so she’s off on vacation for the next two whole weeks! We’re just waiting for my new cousin, Baby Ollie to be born and then we’ll go to Grandpa’s house in Frankford and spend some downtime just hanging out in his nice house by the water.
But there have been good things happening too! The smiley happy me that made an appearance two weeks ago seems to be sticking around. All day long I’m just happy to just sit, bounce my feet all around and smile these big huge smiles. I’m giggling more and now I can’t stop talking. A lot of the times I’m just playing with different noises but the mom’s have caught me babbling a little bit too. Everyone who comes over: Janet (my vision worker), my OT Kristin and Kathy and Barb from Surrey Place (Infant Development and Speech and Language) say that it’s like being around an entirely new kid. They’re amazed at how much I’ve changed in just a few short weeks and they’re so happy that I’m learning new things all of the time. And I LOVE seeing people. I’m not even shy a little bit. This weekend my cousin Alex and her boyfriend Aaron came to visit and I was so happy to just play and smile with them, but it doesn’t seem to matter who’s looking at me, I just want to show them how happy I am. I don’t really care about toys or stuff, but I love the people in my life so very much.
And it seems to all be because the new medication the doctor’s put me on for my seizures seems to be working so very very well. I haven’t had a single seizure in almost 3 weeks and my brain is definitly not feeling as fuzzy as it was before. You can tell just by looking at me that I’m feeling so much better. The doctor’s were really happy at how well I responded to the medication and were happy that I didn’t have to go onto the other one. They were even able to give the mom’s a baseline for my development, which made them happy because a) it’s been a long time since anyone has been able to do that and b) they weren’t too far off the mark themselves. The neurologist says that I’ve developed to about a 4 – 6 month old baby, which at first seems not so good (seeing as I’m 14 months), but is actually pretty amazing, seeing as my brain was pretty much re-set in July. It’s almost like I have 2 birthday’s to count from. I have my December birthday which is my actual age, but then I have my brain birthday which is July and would make me 7 months old. So the mom’s are really really happy with how far I’ve come since I was that little baby in the PICU that wasn’t moving at all, couldn’t see light and couldn’t breathe on her own. When you put it that way, I’m pretty amazed myself.
