Keep Moving Forward

A sitter!

Things are okay in the Dunlap house this week. We've had some good days and some bad days. Mike has been gone a lot the last week with various work outings which has been difficult for me. Dominic has been having a lot of seizures, which means not much sleep at night. I am not the same person when I only get 3 hours of sleep. I have to warn Mitchell that Mom is going to be crabby today. They upped Dominic's meds again, which seems like the only thing they can do when his seizures get worse until he has surgery. The date is set for July 5-7 for his 48-hour Video EEG in Detroit. Immediately following his discharge from EEG on the 7th he'll go to the PET center for his PET scan. I'm hoping that they get all the information they need and we can move the surgery process along. Dominic seems to make such great progress the few days he's seizure free. Then when they start up again, he's wiped out. Sunday he had 6 seizures in an hour and a half and Monday had 7 in two hours (of course at 2:30 am). So, they sort of set him back. I'm ready to be done with these seizures already! And then upping the meds makes him pretty tired for a few days as his body adjusts to the higher dose.

I have two teeth!

He finally got his SPIO (Stabilizing Pressure Input Orthosis) vest on Wednesday, so he's in that full time. We can already tell a difference. He is much sturdier and moves a lot more. He gets his helmet next week, along with his leg stabilizers. These are braces (or "magic shoes" as we call them) that he's worn during therapy. He doesn't put weight on his legs, so these help support him as he's learning to stand. He is going to start "treadmill training" next week. Should be interesting! My father says he's going to look like a hockey goalie when he has all his gear on!

In his sweet unitard (SPIO vest)

At PT in his "magic shoes"

This blog has been great for me, definitely a wonderful personal outlet. The past week has been really difficult for me. Between the seizures, lack of sleep, Mike being gone, three of my close friends moving away and Mitchell constantly using his underwear as the toilet - I thought I had hit my breaking point. Then I looked back at the post I just made last week about blessings. It's amazing how things can change so much in a week. And yet it has been so helpful to read posts like that when I'm having a rough week. Having faith is hard. You have to have just as strong a faith when things suck as you do when things are going well. In the midst of our sleepless nights and the tears we cry,  I have to remind myself they are God's mercies in disguise. Some days it's more of me repeating that to myself than actually feeling that way. But I know that God never gives us more than we can handle. He gives us the strength to get through each day, even if it's only by the skin of my teeth :o)