Look How Far We've Come

Take two! Susanne got up early today to make sure she was prepared for Paxton's therapy session. Paxton seemed to sleep right up until the time of the appointment which Susanne was hoping would be a good thing. She was thinking that a well rested mind would be more open and ready for new challenges.

Susanne was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the therapist. She probably checked out the window too many times. The time of the appointment came and went. No therapist was seen. Five minutes passed, then ten, and then fifteen. Susanne could not believe it. Could she have possibly messed up the schedule again? She double and triple checked the calendar. The therapist was supposed to come out today, but maybe she forgot. Right when Susanne thought about calling her, the phone rang. The therapist got caught up in a meeting and was on her way.

Susanne was able to show the OT all of the progress that Paxton had made over the last week with his non-nutritive sucking. He had been extremely receptive to Susanne squirting little drips of breast milk into his mouth over top of her finger as he suckled away. He didn't always appear to like the taste or feel of it as it entered his mouth, but he almost always continued suckling. The therapist was so proud of him. She was so excited by the improvement that she wanted to challenge him even more. She had Susanne fill up one of the special bottles that she had worked with before. She tried to offer it to him and he gladly accepted it. He seemed to be much more receptive to the bottle this go round than in the past. His breathing was also much more controlled and he appeared more relaxed. Susanne felt like they were getting close to a breakthrough.

Susanne asked the therapist her thoughts on Paxton's need for a G tube vs. continuing with the NG tube. The therapist felt that with the advances that Paxton had made in such a short time with therapy, she had high hopes that he would not need the G tube. This was great news! Sometimes patients relapsed after their heart surgery, but they usually bounced back with great resilience.

After the therapist left, Paxton went down for a nap. Susanne tried to clean the house up a little bit since she had some extra time. Later in the day, she received a phone call from the critical case specialist from the insurance company. She was checking in on Paxton and his progress. In the short time that she spoke with Susanne, she managed to offend her once again. The nurse was always so condescending and outright rude to her. Susanne once again decided to be the better person and bite her tongue. She decided that she would give the lady one more chance before she verbally attacked her. She was tired of being talked down to and misunderstood.

Scott got home later than expected. Susanne waited to cook dinner until he arrived. She prepared him one of his favorite meals. They ate their delicious food in front of the TV and took a load off. It was such a good feeling for them to be in each other's arms again. They missed being this close.

Scott and Susanne ended up watching a show called, "Boston Med", which was a reality medical drama that took place at 3 major metropolitan hospitals in Boston. The strange thing was that the first episode they watched featured a family that had a child who had a severe congenital heart defect. The show went through the trials and tribulations that the family had to go through, especially after the child was born and had to endure heart surgery at an early age. There were a lot of surprising parallels between their story and what happened with Paxton. It made them both very emotional and caused a lot of old memories to resurface. It was not a pleasant thing to look back on, but they felt so blessed to see how far they had come.