Wednesday, April 2, 2008

A day full of learning

Today was an interesting day. I thought that I would spend the whole day doing office work and get ahead of myself but I found that I was angry at myself for Shivam’s pain. I had a long talk with Ranjani (our new found friend) whose daughter went through a similar situation a couple of years ago. She was somebody I really looked up at for one reason – she was a woman of strength and she helped me find more strength as the day went on. Hats off to her.
Some of the important points I learnt from her and Praveen were
· Yogurt is good for Shivam.
· Follow Shivam’s instincts and moods during this journey (he wants to watch TV, sit and watch it with him. He wants you to read the same story 10 times, do it for him).
· Talk to the doctor about understanding when Shivam is in pain and when he is going through a mood swing. Dexamethasone causes a lot of mood alterations.
· Take one day at a time approaching the task at hand. I don’t think a long term approach works for this situation.
· Once 6 months pass by, you can do a lot of fun stuff for Shivam like taking Shivam to places (have I not wanted to do it for so long now), swimming or maybe sending him to school.
· Make him smile.Bring as much normalcy in his life as you can.
· Gain as much knowledge about the subject that you can converse comfortably with the doctor or other authorities (Thanks to Praveen for this).
· Ask questions and get clarifications from the doctor.

He was a great kid during the day and enjoyed time with his grandparents and Nikhil. He also took his meds with little resistance today. Shivam was happy to see me in the evening and clung on to me. I made him a train track and he enjoyed it for some time. We then built a home with building blocks and he loved it. We took out some new clothes for him and he cherished the family time today. I read the same story 3 times to him and he wanted to hold my hand as he watched TV and fell asleep in the night. As I watched him sleep, I remembered that fragile new born baby who is growing to be this strong kid.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Urmila,
In weak moments like this we learn lifes true value.. we all speed through our days.. and miss these beautiful moments with our child, which will soon become milestones.... slow down as they say ...

I am longing to sing to Shivam .. My warm hug to him... he is in my prayers everyday and i am confident hell come out to be a radiant star !!