Burrito

October 16, 2009

Burrito

Oliver had a traumatic visit to the ENT this morning. One of his ear tubes (grommets) was loose in his ear canal. This is not a big deal, but he is in need of new ear molds for his hearing aids. The audiologist had to have the tube removed, before she did the molds. They have to wrap him up like a burrito and hold him down - it takes multiple nurses. He HATES it. Oliver does not enjoy doctor visits to begin with and he tends to start whimpering as soon as he realizes where he is. But he have never responded so dramatically to a procedure (except when he had to have the same process done last year to remove wax from his ears.) Matt actually took him to the appointment today and was able to experience Oliver's fury. He said that once Oliver realized they were leaving, he ran clapping to the van.

Comments

Joanne said…

Shannon, this brings back such memories. We had the same occurance for many years with Sasha, especially regarding her ears. We too called it the burrito wrap, and we had to do it on many occasions, with 4 or 5 nurses holding her down, just so the doctor could simply glimpse in Sasha's ears. But I promise it does get better at some point. While we still have issues with this, we haven't done the burrito in a very long time (phew)! I'm thinking of you as you go through the same...Joanne

October 17, 2009 at 8:54 PM

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.