Hello everyone!
We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed your time with the people you love. We are finally all feeling mostly back to normal after the swine flu and secondary infections and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families. Isabella ended up at the hospital, after she seemed to be improving, got worse with a secondary bacterial infection. It was very scary, but as I said, we're all getting back to our normal selves finally:) Thanksgiving was spent with our families and we always have recipes from both sides of our families, like Greg's Granny's sweet potatoes, my Mom's stuffing and pumpkin muffins. Isabella especially loves this, we all do!
Thinking about Thanksgiving brings back a lot of memories. For us, Thanksgiving 2001 sticks out the most. It was a Thanksgiving we'll never forget.
Nick was just 8 years old on Thanksgiving of 2001. We were celebrating with family at my parents' house. It was, unfortunately, one of the years Greg had to work on Thanksgiving, so he couldn't be there but we spoke to him on the phone several times. After a wonderful night, we were all getting ready to go home. Isabella was 2 years old and she was very tired, so we were planning to go home to put her to bed. As I was gathering our things, Nick was sitting in the middle of the floor with his shoes on, his little black trench coat, waiting for me or someone to pick him up and take him to the car. All of a sudden he said, "hey mom!" and I looked at him, he stood up, all by himself, unassisted, awkwardly managed to get his balance (or close enough to it) and started walking across the living room. He walked all the way to the couch where his PaPa was waiting. We all yelled and screamed and I think I scared him so much by my instinctual reaction of screaming and crying with joy, he almost dropped straight to his knees, but he didn't. Everyone was in amazement, some of us tears, some of us laughing, just thrilled. I hugged him and he said, "you scared me" and then he said, "Mom, you're hugging me too tight!", which I didn't realize. I called Greg and work immediately and I couldn't even speak. Greg cried, we all did. We sat there in shock and amazement. When we got home that night and I put the kids to bed, I laid in bed and could not sleep.
You may be wondering why we "freaked out" and had such a crazy reaction to this event I'm describing to you. The reason I couldn't sleep was because I was going back to the beginning when Nick was little and playing things out in my head, things that lead to this moment with mixed emotions, happiness, sadness, bitter-sweetness, shock, etc.
When Nick was little, based on assessments and evaluations, we were told he would most likely never walk, at least not independently. Yet, ever since Nick was able to speak as a toddler/pre-schooler, he would always say, "I want to walk and run", "I am going to do it". He'd ask Greg and I, "why can't I walk like other kids?", "why can't I run?", "why can't I play regular sports?", and we had countless discussions about these things. I remember when Nick was three at a birthday party with kids his age who were running around and playing this game where they ran in a circle, he wanted to do it so badly, so he cried. Greg picked him up like he normally did, and carried him and acted like Nick's legs and ran with him, which Nick usually loved. Nick cried and didn't want this. He didn't want to be in his wheelchair and pushed. We asked him what was wrong and he said he just wanted to do it "by himself!" Nick has shown this streak of fierce determination to walk and do other things since he was a toddler. He was already showing us he wanted to be independent and do things other kids were doing. He was never one of those kids who became too dependent on his paras at school. In fact, in first grade, we had to work with him on telling people, "no thank you, I can do it myself", instead of getting frustrated when people would help him and he wanted to do things on his own.
For those who knew Nick as a child, his family, physical and occupational therapists, paras at school, they knew Nick had a major goal that HE set for himself, which was WALKING. Now, he had started using a little walker a few years earlier and had only in the 1st grade or so really be able to use it for some distances at school. It was slow-going at times and exhausting for him but he loved it. Then I got a call in first grade from his teacher who told me they had to "give him a verbal warning" for "riding down the ramp outside of school sitting on the back of his walker" and for "running in the halls with his walker". We were like, "YES!" To be clear, this was Nick's goal, not our goal. We wanted him to do whatever he could but if he could not walk, that was ok with us. For some reason, this was just something he really wanted to do and those who knew him, knew this. Greg often acted like his legs and would run with Nick in his arms so Nick could feel that rush a person gets when they are upright on their feet and running and the wind is hitting their face. Nick usually loved this but at times, he didn't because he wanted to do it himself. People take the ability to be upright on their feet, moving, having the wind hit them in their face when they go fast, etc. for granted. This was just something he wanted to do.
So, for the VERY FIRST TIME, Thanksgiving of 2001, at the age of 8, out of the blue, Nick just got up and did this for the first time without a walker or any help from anyone. It was amazing. I guess he was ready and showing us. After that, we took him to Canada (Ability Camp) for 6 weeks in the summer of 2002 and he can walk by himself short distances, but it is exhausting, unsteady, and he falls a lot. He now knows, at the age of 16, he can't "functionally" walk all of the time if he is to get places on time and have energy. That's not the point to Nick. He CAN do it. That's the point for him. Would he like to be able to do it like you and me? Of course! But, he CAN do it just like he said he would. Our heart still skips a beat and we never get used to it when we see him standing on his own and walking on his own. I now have to "look up" to him! It all started for the first time, Thanksgiving of 2001, which was something we will always be thankful for. This is one of our best Thanksgiving memories and I wanted to share it with you!
Blessings:)
Amy
No comments:
Post a Comment