A little piece of heaven

McMama hit it square in the head with this post:

Authenticity

I feel very similar to her, which is why I “share all” in this blog – the good, the bad and the ugly.

What a terrible terrible thing to happen:

Man in “coma” heard everything for 23 years

It’s like having Locked In syndrome – you can receive everything, but have no output.

Sometimes I think this is so similar to Nathan’s situation. So the challenge is mostly finding a method for “output”.

Thus far I have focused with Nathan on motor development, because I feel that motor development will also help him with communication – with better head control comes better use of an eye gaze device, or the ability to use a hand or finger with a computer screen, etc. Also, I’ve focused on motor development over communication because that’s what happens first in typical children – development through movement.

But now that I have Nathan in the right hands motorically, my focus is going to start shifting to communication. During these days in Santiago I am going to start researching and learning about methods of communication so I can start helping to “unlock” Nathan. I know he’s all in there. I just have to give him a way to show it. I was hoping that the Dynavox with Eyemax was the key – it just might be – but I was having lots of funding issues, plus I think it’s important to have a low-tech method available too.

I’ll keep you guys posted of what I learn.

It’s been one of those weeks. We moved to a new apartment, found out it was filthy and the rug was so dusty Nathan and I could hardly breathe, tried moving to a new apartment but couldn’t find any in the area that we like, the water heater broke so we’ve had to take cold cold showers. To top it all off, Nathan got into a fight with a little boy yesterday and got punched out – he’s all black and blue. Well not really. I was so stressed and hardly functional from the week, I didn’t properly secure the chair to the base and he toppled. He got a huge huge huge bump in his forehead, a black and puffy eye, and a swollen nose. Yes, I know, I win the bad mother of the year award – no excuses. Now he has an infection in his left eye and still can’t understand what happened to him. There’s nothing worse than your non-mobile kid getting hurt – you think that’s one thing they don’t have to suffer through in life, then wham, he does. Anyways..he’s all black and blue…but somehow happy. While he’s bruised on the outside, I’m all black and blue on the inside, and hoping for a better week this week – last week was terrible terrible terrible. The good thing is Nathan didn’t have a concussion or anything serious, the owner of the apartment we’re renting called a professional cleaning company, we found an air purifier so now the air in the apartment is breathable, and Nathan is happy.

I leave this week behind with some wonderful pictures to set the mood for a wonderful week next week:

PS. Even though he looks terrible, believe me he was far worse yesterday, when it actually happened. I put traumeel on the bump on his forehead and it worked beautifully, as it was much less swollen today. For anyone whose kid falls and gets hurt – try TRAUMEEL. It is miraculous.