a few pictures and an update

I took a couple of pictures of Aidan today after we got home from his follow-up appointment with the pulmonologist. I thought I'd share them with everyone. I'm so amazed at how big he has gotten. It's hard to believe that he's going to be 5 very soon. And with his birthday brings the anniversary of the accident. This is going to be the 3rd year.

Aidan's visit with the doctor went well. We discussed treating Aidan's asthma differently because the doctor doesn't feel that the nebulizer treatments we had been giving him were effective enough. Last year we had discussed using an inhaler, but it was decided we could hold off on that and see how things went this past year.

The good thing is that we've managed to keep Aidan out of the hospital with pneumonia, but I don't think the actual number of times he's had pneumonia has decreased. A lot of the times we catch it early enough that we're able to start him on antibiotics and get it cleared up quickly, and I'm very persistent about keeping him out of the hospital if we can do everything he needs at home. I hate being in the hospital. I hate feeling that anxiety that the worst is going to happen while we're there. I know that's irrational, but Aidan has everything he needs at home minus a doctor, IV pump and x-ray machine, so why not keep him home away from all the other sick people?

So anyway, after discussing why Aidan needs the inhaler, we decided to discontinue the neb treatments except for when he is sick or needs "rescue" treatments and start him on an Advair inhaler. Because Aidan isn't able to breathe in properly to use the inhaler, we're using what they call a "spacer." It's a little chamber that has a mask on one end and you puff the inhaler into the chamber and the child then breathes that in. Aidan's mask has a duck face on it.

I'm also hoping to find a chiropractor for Aidan to check his spine. I'm afraid he is showing signs of scoliosis and I want to find out for sure and start taking steps to prevent if from getting worse. There are so many things that are connected with a brain injury, you just can't fathom them all. When you can't use your body it just starts to fail and it's a constant fight to keep our children alive, with whatever amount of mobility and use of their body we can get.

I used to think it was like having an infant all over again, but it's not. There are some parts that remind me of taking care of an infant such as understanding their cries and just reading their cues and the lack of ability, but a normal infant is changing every day. They gain a little more strength every day and do new things right before your eyes. It's not like that with Aidan. We're stuck at the completely helpless stage. I compared it to being completely stuck in the mud the other day. And that's what it feel like most of the time. If Aidan makes any progress it seems minute.

I guess that is because I want him to improve by leaps and bounds. I dream of waking up one morning and going in his room to find him sitting up on his own, holding up his head and saying "hi, Mom." or playing with some toy or reading a book. Those are the things he did before the accident and I wish I could see him do all of that again.

So here are the pictures I took today- He looks so "normal" in them. If you're wondering what he is wearing on his feet in the one picture, those are his new AFO's. We call them his ski boots, because that's what they look like.