Jake's Journey with Apraxia

I almost didn’t blog today because I don’t have any big apraxia news this week and truthfully, for me to say “Happy Friday” really causes my gratitude muscle to fatigue. Unfortunately, Jake, LD, and myself all got bit by the rotavirus bug this week, and Jake got hit the hardest.

The trauma all began last weekend. After Jake spent all of Friday throwing up, he progressed into other fun bodily fluids on Saturday. Then, Saturday night, LD and myself spent all night yacking our brains out.

Thank God I have a good husband who spent all night running up and down the stairs between Boy #2 and myself. He went over and beyond the call of duty and I am blessed to have such a good man in my life.

Fortunately, I started feeling better Monday night, but we had to take Jake to the ER two times – Sunday and Tuesday. Sunday they gave us a prescription for abdominal cramping and Tuesday night they gave him fluids through an IV and then sent us home. He actually did pretty well when they stuck him and only cried for about a minute or so.

Finally, LD and Jake started feeling better last night. Yes, almost seven days later! Jake was very crabby this week and wanted to be held for most of the time. It was like having a newborn baby, only worse because he is stronger, heavier, and knows how to say the word “No!”

Speaking of which, I really felt the weight of his communication problems this week. On Sunday afternoon before we took him to the ER, he was just laying in the bathroom floor, silent, for two hours and refused to get up.

Needless to say, there wasn’t much speech therapy going on and way too much television. But there were a few breaks in the clouds:

• One day this week Jake did a good job singing the songs from his speech CD while we were in the car.
• I printed out /p/ flashcards from the “Testy but Trying” blog and used these cards with an old Caribou game. Jake played one round while at the same time practicing all of his /p/ words.
• Even though I felt trapped at times, I enjoyed all the snuggle time.
• On Thursday, the SLP that we were going to September through December of 2011 called to say that Jake had been added back to her caseload. She started doing evaluations this semester and they redistricted us to a school further away. The new SLP we were assigned to did not have experience with small children or apraxia and we stopped public school therapy. I stated my case to the Special Ed Director last week and surprisingly enough, got my way. On Monday, we begin seeing her one day a week for a thirty minute one-on-one session. Jake will also continue getting private therapy twice a week.

I guess this is why people do gratitude journaling! Even amongst this terrible week, we still had a few good things happen and it feels good to recognize those instead of dwelling on the negative.