Nineth Month Home

9th Month Recovery Week1

I took a few days off of work right after you came home from the hospital to transition.  Your dad and I were a nervous wreck worrying about you falling or bumping your head.  It was a good thing I took a few days off because you ended up coming down with a high fever for a couple of days.  Nice bonus bug from the hospital I guess.  We re-safety proofed the whole house (which was over the top safety proofed already).  Your dad wrapped the coffee table and any other piece of dangerous looking furniture in bubble wrap.  A new fashion trend I guess.  I think we should put some neon lights inside of it and sell it as a new fashion craze.

We are noticing that when you don’t feel good or when you are really tired it really wears your system down.  I have talked to other moms that have children with TBIs.  They say the same thing that when their children are sick or really tired, they will stumble more, hold their hand/limbs/arms more rigid and their eyes will wander.  Your right eye tends to wander off and up when you don’t feel well.  Your eyes aren’t aligned since you injury but the alignment is worse when you aren’t feeling well.  Hopefully with patching and time the alignment will improve.  It scares us when you seem extra fussy or off, for we are in constant worry about new bleeds.

9th Month Recovery Week 2

You started to pull yourself up to stand on vertical walls this week.    At physical therapy you stood for a minute independently a few times.  You are a master of shaking your head “no” when you don’t want to eat something.  When you were playing with a car with your dad you made a “vroom vroom” noise.  This was exciting for us because you aren’t really making any animal sounds when you see an animal.  We try really hard with books and toys trying to get you to “moo” or “baa” but you just aren’t doing it yet.

You had a repeat MRI at Children’s Hospital.  It is the first in the series of repeats to track your bleeding and to make sure no new bleeds show up.  They let me hold you until you fell asleep, then I got to go back in the room with you after your procedure.  You once again were really cranky, crying and thrashing around while you fell asleep.  You sure don’t like that feeling of loss of control.  When you woke up I was there with you, which was good because you woke up very upset and crying. The doctor said there were no new bleeds so I could take you home.  You slept all the way home.  You were really, really unsteady when we got home.  You couldn’t hold your neck up very well.  When you tried to crawl you teetered and fell down.  At about 5:00pm the sedative had mostly worn off and you were back to normal.   Scary stuff having you even more unsteady from the sedative with us so stressed about keeping you from bumping your head.  You will have to have another repeat MRI and meeting with your neurologist in a month.   I talked to the neurologist office expressing my concerns/worries about you being so active, trying to learn to walk/get around and your sensitivity to your head.   They said it would get better in time; that once you were walking and more stable we wouldn’t have to shadow you as much.  That seems so far off…I don’t know if we will survive.

9th Month Recovery Week 3

You are trying to take steps.  You will let go of whatever you are hanging onto and launch yourself at your mom and dad.  I don’t know how much more of this having our hearts fall in our chest with worry that we can handle.  Fortunately it seems that your dad and I have strong hearts.  You are still sleeping poorly, waking several times a night and staying up for an hour to 3 hours at a time.  Midweek when it was time for your bath, you pointed for the first time with your index finger on your right hand.  You were pointing at the light.  You like to play “I’m gonna get ya.”  A game where you creep and either your Dad or I chase you on hands/knees saying “I’m gonna get ya.” Then we finally get ya we tickle you.  You smile really big and take off at a supersonic creep.  For the past couple of weeks you have been obsessed with putting things in and out of containers.  You like to throw things.  You got the triangle shape sorted in all by yourself today.

 

9th Month Recovery Week 4

You are trying to cruise more from furniture piece to furniture piece.  Your falling has gotten worse.  You are getting so used to us being right next to you to catch you that you let yourself fall sometimes.  Hopefully this will correct itself in time when we don’t have to worry so much about bumps to the head.  You have no fear for we never let you fall.  This week I changed my work hours from 40 to 32 hours to try to have more time for all of your appointments.  I wish I didn’t have to work at all, but we need insurance and bills have to be paid.

You started to make an animal noise!  You make s “sss sss” noise for snake.  You let go of the coffee table and took 5 steps.  Exciting but scary…you have absolutely no fear.  A couple of days later you think you can walk.  You let go of the table constantly now and can take 4 or 5 steps until your momentum overpowers you and you fall.  I am constantly diving trying to catch you before you hit the floor.  I am surprised that for an old lady I still have such good reaction time.  You sometimes also stand for a moment balancing without holding onto anything.