Update Tuesday afternoon 5/8

Dale had a super-duper day yesterday!  He was really steady the whole day long; he focused well on his studies; he did great even though I was two and a half hours late giving him his morning meds!  I almost always forget to give Dale his medication Sunday mornings before we leave for church.  Somehow I can't see my mental sticky note reminding me about that!  But, on school days, I rarely forget.  He takes his meds each morning around 9:00; at this time M - F, he is with me in my classroom, so it's easy to hand him his pills with a glass of water.  Somehow, due to adverse weather conditions or sunspots or brain freeze on my part, I completely forgot his morning dose.  We were in the car and halfway to PT when I remembered.  I told Dale we would grab a paper cup of water from the drinking fountain once we got to the waiting room, and he could take his medication then.  I wasn't expecting them to be out of paper cups!  And it would have been very hard for Dale to try to put a pill in his mouth, hold it there while he bent down to take a drink, and manage to swallow properly---without half drowning all over again!  (Don't look at me like that........it's just a joke!)  So, I decided to wait until we entered the PT gym to get a paper cup from there.  But........we didn't go inside the gym right away!  Alison decided that, since Dale was having such a good day so far, that we (she, Dale, and I) would walk down the stairs (which he did step over step the whole thirty steps with his legs buckling on only one), turn the corner, walk down the short open hallway to the front doors, veer right, go down another short flight of stairs, walk down the sidewalk halfway, practice walking up and down a grassy incline, practice sitting down and getting up without much help, and then reverse our steps back to the PT center.  (Now, if that wasn't the world's longest rambling sentence, I don't know what is!  That almost beat Esther 8:9's record!)  This wonderful exercise, which Dale passed with flying colors, took the entire hour appointment.  We walked inside the PT gym in order for Dale to grab a sticker (reward) and for Alison and I to talk for a few minutes.........as if we hadn't been yakking the entire hour anyway.........when something she said reminded me, "Dale!  Seizure meds!"  So, he finally got to take his morning meds when there was only about half an hour left in the morning.  He was fine though---no adverse effects noted.

The rest of Monday went well, too.  He is really coming along in his school work, complaining mildly when I expect him to do more than he wants---which is standard procedure for a seventh grade boy.  Dale even walked a bit by himself at home.  These days are treasured and encouraged, giving all of us something to look forward to on days when he is not so steady...........like Tuesday!

Dale woke up this morning with almost none of the steadiness of yesterday.  This seems to be the norm; if one day is really good, we can expect the next day to be rather shaky.  We were almost late for school due to Dale's need to go a bit more slowly and road work on our school's backdoor street.  We made it on time, though, and I didn't even speed!  (Not today, anyway.)  Today alone, Dale worked two English grammar lessons (compound subjects/verbs and diagramming), took a grammar quiz (sentence review, simple diagramming---he got a 100% A+!!!), took a spelling and vocabulary quiz (on which he missed only one), worked three math lessons (adding and subtracting fractions), and finished a page and a half in his science pace.  Not bad for a young man who, nine months ago, doctors said wouldn't make it!  Isn't our Lord amazing?  He works best when we have nothing else to help us because then He gets all the glory.  He waits until we get to the end of our rope and then says, "Watch what I can do without rope!"  I am so thankful that God has allowed us to experience firsthand His wonderful goodness and mighty power, and I know that God is not done yet---there's definitely more to come.

Today marks four and a half weeks of progress in a most important area:  the tub.  When Dale first came home from the hospital, he had GREAT difficulty getting into and climbing out of the bathtub.  Bath time was hard enough with having to wash Dale personally again as I did when he was little---except now he's a grown boy---and having to undress and redress him each time.  Plus, Dale was, for a time, afraid again of getting water in his ears or eyes or lying down in the water.  This made bathing him quite a chore, one I'm afraid I reduced to once a week for reasons of convenience.  As his mind progressed out of its haze from the drowning, I was able to reteach him the basics of personal cleanliness and bathing routine.  Eventually, I was able to get him into the tub and leave him to wash himself, staying just down the hall in case he needed me.  Dale would "freak out" over the most trivial things:  the shampoo bottle falling into the water, his leg slipping out of his grasp while he was trying to wash it, being unable to right himself if he felt he was slipping to one side in the tub.  But, for the past month, most of that has simply faded away.  Dale still gets upset when the bottles won't stay on the shelf and he still doesn't like soap in his eyes (who does?), but now he rather calmly grabs for the washcloth to wipe his eyes or tries again to put the bottle upright on the shelf.  Getting into the tub has required almost no assistance on my part other than being close "just in case", and getting out of the tub has gotten easier and easier for Dale.  Today's bath:  Dale needed almost no help getting up on his knees and then standing up to get out.  Praise the Lord for this needed and obvious improvement!

As always, God is good, more than we often give Him credit for.  He is to be desired above all else.  He is I AM.

Psalm 18: 46  "The LORD liveth; and blessed be my Rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted."