Maxwell and Me: I climbed Mount Everest. Twice.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

I climbed Mount Everest. Twice.

In June, 2010, I had a dream that I climbed Mount Everest. Twice. It felt so profound and prophetic at the time. A few weeks later, I discovered that I was pregnant with Max. Surviving pregnancy and childbirth was my first mountain to climb. Boy was that an epic journey! I started climbing the second mountain when Max first got sick. I've just reached the pinnacle and now we're on our way down....

So many things going on in my mind right now, that I'm a bit confuzzled as to how to articulate myself. I don't really know exactly what I want to write about in this post, so I figure that I'll just start writing and see what happens.....

Starting with some good news....Thanks to a random act of kindness, Max has been accepted into an early intervention program. This entitles him to 2 hours of therapy per fortnight. So now, I don't have to beg the hospital for services AND I can choose how often he sees the private physio (who I'm definitely hanging on to!!). Because our appointments at RCH are dwindling off (more about that later), I feel like we are now truly embarking on the next leg of our journey. The early intervention team, will be seeing Max until he starts school so they're about to become almost 'part of the family'.

(a gorgeous photo, just to break things up a bit)

We have now been discharged from Neurology at RCH. Max has (so far) successfully weaned off his anti-seizure medication. He is so much happier without the medication. I'd read that phenobarb can cause agitation, so I think this may have been causing his mood swings. I am loving 'getting to know' my baby's true personality. And boy, does he have bucket loads of personality!

We have also been discharged from Neurosurgery at RCH. Last week we had our last appointment and saw some images from the latest MRI. This time, I was prepared for the anguish I'd feel but nonetheless, I felt like I'd been slapped across the face with a wet fish. Even though I know that he is young and his brain will learn to compensate for the damage, it feels completely shit seeing your baby's brain so badly damaged.

I'm feeling a sense of freedom now that we are less tied down with appointments. I've celebrated by not doing as much housework and consequently, there is 'stuff' every where. It bothers me, but not enough to rectify it. In some ways, now that life has granted us some respite, it is making me realize how much we've been through these past few months. It sounds silly I suppose, how could I not have realized that my baby having a stroke was a significant life event? I guess, I've been running on auto-pilot for awhile. So the house is messy? Big flipping deal.

And finally.... Now that life is getting more predictable, I've run out excuses for eating junk food and being lazy. I've joined Weight Watchers online and have embarked upon getting myself healthy again. If I'm going to teach Max a healthy lifestyle, then I have to have one myself. I admit though, it felt strange this morning doing something for myself. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

If my dream is true, then I've climbed Mount Everest twice now. Hopefully, this means that we can begin the downward decent towards 'normality'.