The tapestry of the life of a medically complex family

Archive for July, 2013

Blueberries 2013

Although it’s rarely easy, I work to give my kids age appropriate experiences. Today we packed up oxygen, suction, cooling vests and the wagon to head off to the blueberry patch. Trachboy picked nearly a half hour before needing the cooling vest & to sit in the wagon. The girls fared better, Youngest sat to pick but moved between rows pretty well considering. Trachgirl even handled being buzzed by a bee.
Trachboy needed suction a few times and an oxygen increase to 1.5Lpm to keep going (seated) but he ate more than the girls while there in the bushes. Lunch was delicious with the fresh blueberries in our homemade yogurt. Enjoy the photos.

20130722-160027.jpg

20130722-160039.jpg

20130722-160051.jpg

20130722-160101.jpg

20130722-160133.jpg

Advertisement

Category:

Community, Environmental Challenges, kids, Memories, Preemie, Special Needs, Trach

Monotony

I live an invariable life.

While others lament the “heat waves” that ebb & flow through New England summer, I hunt my lamb’s wool slippers every mid-day to tame the chill set by the AC. Heat intolerance is severe with the wee ones who seem to generate their own as a by-product of their metabolic condition. 65 is their ideal. We have all grown so used to it that I am able to detect the rising humidity, the point at which the temperature rises to 70.

The walls of the playroom and kitchen house our day. There are those fleeting moments when I open a door to put out the dog or receive an oxygen delivery. I am shocked by the heat that blasts through the opening. We read, play, climb, swing & slide indoors until the relief of fall arrives. Our only escapes: clinic visits, surgeries, medical tests- each with a cost: fatigue, regression, declining respiratory status.

Monotony. Invariability.

Safety. “Health”.

Category:

Environmental Challenges, kids, Preemie, Special Needs, Trach