Unfortunately, this is us. Stacy and I are the parents that have to sit there and watch as James seizes. Hard doesn’t even begin to describe it. We just feel so helpless. We’ve pretty much tried every available treatment for these damn things, but they just seem to be stronger than everything we’ve tried. Just when we think we’ve finally gotten them under control, they make an ugly return.

They’ve been a bit more frequent these past couple of weeks. Stacy thinks it has something to do with his teething. Maybe. I guess it could be a response the pain and/or discomfort of his new teeth coming in. Stacy’s been giving him some pain meds so hopefully that will help.

Unfortunately, we really won’t know until he’s done teething. And how long will that be? Do we need to just sit here and watch him suffer from these stupid seizures until he’s done teething? And what if the seizures have nothing to do with his teething?

I haven’t told Stacy this, but there are times that I put my head against his and ask the powers that be to take away some of his suffering and give it to me. James doesn’t deserve to suffer this way. Nobody does. I’d much rather be the one suffering than watch him go through it.

We Made the Paper…Again

As you may recall, we were gifted an accessible bathroom renovation over the summer. I wrote a couple of posts about it, but the final, detailed one that I wrote about a month ago can be found here.

The Daily Herald, a local newspaper wrote an article about it in last Sunday’s paper. A picture of the article is above, but here’s a link to the full article if you’d like to read it:

https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20150913/entlife/150919731

The bathroom renovation was completed by members of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry of Greater Chicagoland. A couple of weeks ago we were invited to attend one of the association’s dinners where we got to personally thank each and every person that played a part in this bathroom remodel. Stacy knew most of them because she was home, but because I was working, that was the first time I actually had a chance to meet and personally thank most of them. There was a photographer there from another local paper that took a group picture of all of us so I expect another article to be hitting the presses soon.

Here is a list of the people and companies that generously donated labor, materials, and funding to create this amazing bathroom. We can’t thank you all enough. It is beyond what we ever imagined.

• • Oak Tree Construction Services
  • D/R Services Unlimited, Inc.
  • Phil’s Electric Company
  • M.A. Newman Inc. Plumbing
  • Schluter Systems
  • Tripp Builders
  • Valdivia and Sons Construction
  • NARI of Greater Chicagoland
  • Chicago Renovation and Development
  • Moen/Crawford Supply
  • Geberit
  • Callahan and Peters
  • Boone Creek Cabinets
  • Mr. Floor Companies
  • Evanston Lumber
  • ITW Build Clean
  • Pro Source Wholesale Flooring
  • Sherry Schultz, Crawford Supply
  • Jeanne Halko, Crawford Supply
  • Lior Bega, Sweet Home Improvements
  • Jim Ziegler, Stone, Pogrund, & Korey
  • John Oetking, A Street Builders, Inc.
  • Don Van Cura Construction

Happy Anniversary to Us

On Friday Stacy and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary and 17 years of being together. We were able to get a babysitter for James so that we could go out for dinner and dessert, just the two of us. It’s always nice to spend some alone time together…something we don’t get to do too often.

As nice as it was to get a couple of hours to ourselves, we couldn’t wait to get back home to our little man…and our bed! Maybe we’re getting older, or maybe we’re just tired from caring for James, but we can’t stay up late like we used to. I should probably clarify that last sentence. We are not tired OF caring for James, we are tired FROM taking care of him. We would never grow tired of taking care of him. He’s our little dude, and would do anything for him.