The other day I heard Steve comment to someone that these days Elijah has more good days than bad. The switch must have snuck up on me and over taken the bad days without me even realising it because it took me a moment to think, process and agree that yes, in fact Elijah's days are mostly good now and good days with Elijah are great! Nights on the other hand are another story! For the first time the other night since hospital (which was over 2 months ago now) Elijah only woke up once during the night. He took another 2 hours to go back to sleep that time, which is unusual, but the point is he only woke once! An average night would be 5 times and other times on the hour. It's unpredictable, always changing and tiring but makes for good conversation, ha ha. I have to tell you this story....
OK, let me set the scene just quickly. The curtains in our house are really thick so when it's night time it's pitch black and it's for this reason, no laughing yet please, that we have a night light in our room, and a night light in the hallway so when we get up during the night there's no fumbling around in the dark, OK. So, the other night when I got up to Elijah, I was real tired and still half asleep, like usual. I went into bubs room, checked he was OK, rolled him over, put the dummy in his mouth and he went back to sleep. When I came out of his room I noticed that it was pitch black and that I couldn't see anything. As I neared the corner into our room, I could see again and I was like, Oh my gosh! I must have had my eyes closed without knowing it! Ha ha, I couldn't believe I was practically sleep walking around the house but then as I neared our bed and saw the flashing clock/radio on 12:00 I realised that there had just been a power cut from the time I'd gone into Elijah's room to the time I'd walked back around the corner. Silly, tired me.
You might remember one huge problem we had with Elijah in hospital was his constipation due to all the antibiotics and morphine he had combined with other contributing factors. Well I'm happy to announce that this is finally not a problem for Elijah any more! I think this is real proof that his body is starting to really recover from his stint in hospital. So that's 2 meds that he doesn't have to take any more and I'll pass on this handy tip if anyone has a littlie that may need a little help now and then in this department. Golden kumara (sweet potato) and brown sugar (not together) really do work wonders, the best advise our Oncologist has given us. Another interesting thing I wanted to mention was Elijah's finger nails (and toe nails) after we left hospital you could see them grow out as they had a line across the nail that separated the new, normal nail and the old nail which was marked by all the drugs and was raised and yellow. The nails on Elijah's right side have finally grown out leaving normal nails behind but the nails on his left side have grown out half as slow and are still showing about 1/4 of the old nail. I was going to photograph them to illustrate what I'm talking about but his finger nails are still so tiny! I think this proves that Elijah's whole left side of his body functions are undoubtedly slower/worse than his right and with Elijah still not crawling or walking it could take a lot more time and therapy than we think until Elijah is up and about.
Another thing that is really holding Elijah back is his Hickman Line.
Meet Elijah's Hickman Line.
He has had this in for about 3 months now, it was put in under anesthetic when he was in intensive care because they couldn't get any other lines into his veins. This is a permanent port that is usually used for chemotherapy. Elijah is on the waiting list to have it removed as he has to be under anesthetic again and no longer needs it at this stage. I was really hoping it'd be out by Christmas but that is very unlikely now. Although it was a life saver when we were in hospital as he can have all his medications through it and they can take blood samples straight from it, it's now just a huge pain in the behind! We are advised against bathing with it and swimming is a big no no. It's a shame as bath time used to be the highlight of his day. If you have any spare prayers for Elijah to get this line out as soon as possible would be great, thanks.
Well I think that's enough for one post but stay posted as I have a Christmas wish on behalf of Elijah that I'll write about soon. Thanks for reading.
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