Last Monday as a family we carved pumpkins for family night, I let the kids pick out their own pumpkin and I let them carve them however they wanted they loved it, Jaren wanted to carve one too so the kids finished their's and then they each took turns and helped Jaren carve his. I was sitting on the couch taking some pictures of them helping and Braxton came up to me and asked me a question that I didn't know what to say, he said "mom, since dad likes holidays so much and he likes when the family does things together on holidays, does that mean he is going to die on my birthday?" he then had huge tears about ready to fall but he kept it together and I told him, "no he will not die on your birthday we don't know when he will die but it WILL NOT be on your birthday" I think he has it in his mind because his birthday is April 8 and his next birthday is on Easter Sunday. I was kind of caught off guard and I really didn't know how to respond to him but he seemed to be ok with the answer that I gave him. He will be turning 8 and so he thinks that Jaren won't be able to baptize him so I have talked to him and told him that our Bishop has assured me that if someone has to get in the water with him to hold him up he WILL be able to baptize him.
Jaren started swallow therapy and it seems to be helping somewhat, he has exercises that he has to do three times a day to help build up his tongue muscles. They told me that they would like him to NOT use a straw because when he drinks with a straw it starts to go down the wrong tube, but it does come back up before he swallows it all so they said that was good, but they are worried about the aspiration pnuemonia, they have him on a diet of soft moist foods they say that will help him swallow the food easier. He has a nerve conductive test on the 10th of November to find out how much damage all of the pain is doing to his muscles and nerves I didn't know if I wanted to put him through it but I think it will be good to have a baseline.
I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!!
So sad that our kids have these worries that others kids would never think of having.
ReplyDeleteI always worry about how my children are dealing with their siblings illness when they don't voice it. Many times my kids don't say what they are thinking especially my oldest. That worries me. I started seeing a cognitive behavior therapist for kids so she can give me some guidance on how to draw my oldest son out and hopefully get him to start expressing some of his thoughts out loud. I have only visited with her once but I hope that this will be helpful. I didn't take him to see the therapist because my husband doesn't want my son to think he's "weird" or that he has a "problem". Plus I don't think my son would talk to her. So that is why I am the one seeing her.
I hope the nerve study goes well and that the swallow therapy helps.
I hope you enjoyed your Halloween!
Cindy