Thursday, September 10, 2009

Jayden is AWESOME!

I woke up this morning and just felt so compelled to get on here and write about how well Jayden is doing. He was sick in August with pneumonia and vomiting and for the two weeks following that all he did was cry. I am not talking about any old cry I'm talking about huge tears and screaming as if he were in pain. It was really breaking my heart because I couldn't figure out what the problem was. He was telling me in the only way he knows how to with a cry. During that 2 to 3 weeks span I had him checked out for everything I could think of. His physical therapist checked his hips and joints, Pediatrician checked him out from head to toe including lab work and urinalysis, I took him off of Banxel which was a new med for seizures, slowed down on his Ranitidine which is for his stomach, I even turned off his VNS (it's back on now), and of course lots of prayer. And all of a sudden one day he just smiled. It was a huge smile and everything changed. I have no medical reason for why the crying started or stopped but I will tell you that prayer is a powerful thing. Sometimes when I am in the heat of the moment and I am racking my brain trying to figure out what my next step is; I get so caught up in the moment that I forget that God is waiting on me to call upon Him. Jayden is doing so awesome and I pray every night that God will keep my baby boy just the way he is. He is so happy and is actually making progress. Jayden used to ALWAYS put his right hand to his mouth and in return would have a seizure because of it. I know it's a weird trigger, but hey we are talking about Jayden here. For whatever he reason he has stopped doing that. He is keeping his arms midline, he is smiling all the time,and even laughing at us. He demands attention, he's making eye contact with us. He is even ticklish!! That is a huge deal because I have always said that Jayden's "tickler" is broken. I am enjoying every minute of everyday with this little boy who is so strong and just amazes me. Yesterday at school Jayden was in his gatetrainer and took 7 very purposeful steps without being helped at all. He is using the switch for communication and laughing at the kids. His teacher is so impressed. The other day a man walked into the gas station across the street and saw the picture of our family from a newspaper clipping from a few months ago. The man commented on the article and the cashier told him that considering what we were dealing with that we were one of the strongest families she knows. I thanked her for the compliment but I thought to myself we aren't doing anything special. We do what we have to do and we have no complaints. It's fun to hear how people perceive our family from the outside looking in. It made me think back to when Jayden was first in the hospital at 2 months old and how scared I was for him. But everything I feared came true. He's never had seizure control, he's confined to a wheelchair, and now he is even fed through a g-tube. But it's ok! We survived! He survived! And this little boy who has never uttered a word has made us the strong family that we are. We get our courage from him! God makes no mistakes, He wanted us as a family to be the best that we can be and He gave us Jayden to make it happen.