Saturday we had a little pool party at the Jones Center with some friends and my parents. He had a ball and has been nagging me to go back to the Jones Center pool ever since.
Kain also had his first appointment with the psychiatrist at Schmieding. It was an interesting experience. She had some insights into his behavior I hadn't thought of before, pointing out some progresses we hadn't seen..for example, the way he cries so easily now- when he came here, he *never* cried. Ever. I'd forgotten that, how even when he fell and hurt himself he wouldn't cry. Instead he would become enraged! It was really odd behavior, to see him fall down and get into this angry rage about it. He doesn't do that anymore. In fact, his rages are much less frequent. I keep reminding myself how bad things used to be...we have made a lot of progress and I need to remember how far we've come. He is doing much better in school since starting the medication three weeks ago. He enjoys school and has a very patient teacher that he adores. We were making great progress with his behavior at home even before the medication, but the medication has helped in smaller ways here...he handles things like mass, going to the grocery store, doctor's appointments, overstimulating situations like that much, much better now. We will continue to go the weekly therapy, and we are working on getting OT and speech therapy started through his school. I may have to be a little, ah, assertive about getting that done. There are a lot of kids that need therapy and not enough therapists to go around, so I guess you have to have some pretty severe delays to get therapy...but I've got two doctors now saying he needs this done, and it needs to happen! I also realized how much he has slimmed down since coming to stay with us in August. Between his weight problem and his lung condition, he had no exercise tolerance at all. He would become short of breath and complain about his legs hurting just walking through the walmart parking lot. Now he runs and play outside for a couple of hours everyday, and it is showing. The binge eating that we had such a struggle with is almost nonexistent now. He sleeps through the night many nights now. He used to wander around the house and we would find him asleep on the hallway floor in the morning! Now he still wakes and turns on his bedroom lights some nights, but he doesn't roam anymore, and many nights he seems to sleep straight through.
Thank you to everyone that has prayed for us with this situation with Kain...some of you for three years now since we first started this journey of trying to help him. When we lost him three years ago, I never knew if I'd even see him again. We have prayed and prayed...St. Mother Theresa, St. John Bosco, and John Paul II are ones I have begged prayers and intercessions through...and here he is , and doing *well*. We are so grateful.
2 comments:
Mel, God bless you and your family! You have done wonderful things for your nephew!
Good. He's going to be so much happier. It reminds me of The Secret Garden. Children are much happier with good exercise, good rest and love. He is going to be able to grow spiritually and emotionally. I bet you feel elated. He'll continue to lose that rage and convert it to positive feelings. He won't even realize his change as much over time, but one day he'll know that he's so much better.
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