Today marks two weeks since Luke came home after being in the hospital for nearly a month.
To Recap –
Luke had a shunt placed at 3 days old, and it became infected when he was one. He had surgery and proceeded to be problem free for 14 years. A miracle, really, until this past December when he got off the bus one Friday afternoon and couldn’t walk. Literally sat down in the middle of the road. Ryan and I reasoned that the symptom was attributed with the discomfort of his new braces; however, that night he wouldn’t eat and the next morning he wouldn’t either. Luke ALWAYS eats. We brought him to ER where it was discovered that his shunt was broken. He underwent surgery a few days later, was discharged, and we came home after a week; thankful that everything in our chaotic life was somewhat in order again.
Luke appeared to rebound quickly: walking again, eating, and singing so instead of canceling my speaking engagements, I headed to Michigan the following week and shared my story and encouraged communities to help special needs families.
I arrived home, we enjoyed the holiday together, Christmas night we feasted on our traditional prime rib dinner, and Luke wouldn’t eat. The next morning, he couldn’t walk. We returned to ER where it was discovered that his new shunt was infected. This was an “OH GOD!” moment because the revelation entailed a much more intense surgery and recovery period to first remove the infected shunt, strong continuous sedation to ensure that Luke wouldn’t mess with anything, strong antibiotics to clear the infection out of his body, and then another surgery to place a new – hopefully infection free – shunt back in.
Three weeks of absolute exhaustion – head down, “get er done” kind of life. Mya and I managed the fort at home, I visited Luke during the days, Ryan worked when he could because we did have bills to pay, and then spent every night beside Luke.
When Luke was discharged two weeks ago, I spent the majority of the first week in bed with his baby monitor beside me. I got up to make food for the kids, do a load of laundry, and check email, but I primarily binged on Netflix and good books like The Body Keeps the Score and Small Fry (links below). The trauma had finally caught up with me. Ryan continued to move, slowly, but never felt rested or quite right. We still don’t – really. We’re so damn tired. We compare it to the aftermath when our first spouses passed away in 2010 as we napped almost daily for over a year – our bodies and minds completely spent. Trauma affects people in the strangest ways: all I want to do is sleep, my joints ache – hips, knees, legs – bound so tight from stress, so tightly I’ve been moving like I’m 80 not 42. About a week ago, in an effort to reduce my Advil consumption, I discovered a natural combination of Gaba, willow bark (2 for natural pain relief), Tumeric (4-6 for inflammation) and magnesium calm (2 at night for sleep) that has been a very effective nighttime cocktail, and I dance a lot with the kids – shaking off the stress like a wild animal after being pursued as prey. I haven’t been able to convince Ryan to join our dance parties – not yet, at least 😊 I’ve tried to take really good care of myself and go slowly – difficult for a type A, Enneagram 1 who thrives on changing the world, but right now, my focus has been on changing me so that I can function for my world – my husband and kids.
Luke is getting there. He had a week remaining of detox meds when we arrived home so he’s been drug free for a week now; however, we still notice occasional tremors. He’s resting most days in his bed with music or his Ipad, he’s eating really well – back to normal – and his walking is improving daily but could take a while to be back to baseline. Today he walked unassisted to his chair – which is huge! During surgery the doctor had to remove the infected tube that ran from his head down to the base of his abdomen – a tube which had been there for 14 years – so yes, his core strength has been greatly compromised. The doctor informed us that we’ll be much more in the clear (infection wise) at the 6 week marker. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll even begin to exhale until we reach 6 weeks. Hope feels very fickle right now, and I’m not trusting it at all. I know I have to let some of these walls of protection fall, but it is hard. We’ve done everything we can possibly do as Luke’s parents – hydrogen peroxide on his wounds, feeding him healthy foods full of hidden nutrition, Vit D drops, Vit C, Gaba to keep him calm, magnesium to help him sleep, washing his blankie and bed constantly, we’ve done it all but at the end of the day, this is a child with profound special needs who can’t be reasoned with, and if he’s interested in playing with his wounds with his grimy fingers (he also puts his fingers in his mouth all the time) he’s going to do it. Every meal, as he sits in his feeding chair, I look at the scar on his head and envision tiny little angels scrubbing away all the germs with tiny little sponges, and I pray, protect my boy from infection and protect our family from any more trauma and then I say –
“But you are God, and I am not. Thy will be done.”
Thank you for checking in on us. Links for any of the products I mentioned are below.
(Jess Ronne is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.)
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Just keep livin.
