James was doing so-so after our trip to the doctor’s house last Sunday, so we decided to keep him home from school on Monday. I think he likes being home with his mommy because he stayed home on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. We’re really just trying to keep him healthy. We don’t think he’s immunocompromised, but maybe his body just has a harder time dealing with the germs in the world.
Hopefully someday his immune system will be stronger, and he’ll be able to enjoy more of what life has to offer. In the meantime, we’ll just keep doing whatever it takes to keep this kid healthy. Sometimes that means getting a little creative. Because James can’t swallow and manage his own secretions, we put him on his belly multiple times a day to let gravity help drain some of his secretions. So what do you do when your kid’s belly time area is too far away from the oxygen concentrator, he needs a little boost of oxygen, and the nasal canula isn’t long enough to reach? If you’re Stacy, you assess the situation, see what you have available, and find out that the tubing for his nebulizer (breathing treatments) is long enough to reach. Stacy connected the nebulizer tubing to the concentrator and taped the other end down right in front of James’ nose to give that little boost of oxygen that he needed.
Stacy felt that he was well enough to go back to school on Thursday, which was “Necktie Day”.
Friday James came home from school with a special award:
Yesterday Stacy put up the first of what we hope will be many of James’ school photos on the wall outside his bedroom. We’re going to keep the pregnancy pictures up for now but may take them down if and when the wall starts filling up with his school photos.
Sunday was Mother’s Day and James gave mommy a special gift he made at school. It made Stacy cry.
It may be a bit hard to read, so here is a closeup of what it says:
We went to a Mother’s Day brunch at Stacy’s brother’s house and James got to hang out with his cousins for a bit.