Before and after

Sophie is still sick today so we haven't done much.  Lucas was super tired after a day of swimming and basketball with his dad so even he went to bed early. 

While Sophie has been sick it has struck me how much this house works well for us.  Her room has her great hospital bed and a bathroom attached which is so handy for us and her nurses.  We have large doorways that allow her to get around in her wheelchair and we have a living room with a large floor space to put her mat on.

But this house wasn't always perfect for us.  Before we moved in and changed it all it was anything but.  Many people have asked for before and after's of our house so I figured it was about time I put some of them up.

Sophie's room before

It was an old addition to the house that was used as a den and it had a powder room and desk area.  It still had its original furniture ;)

The tear out

We did all the tear out of the house ourselves.  It took us a month to do the entire main floor.  It was fun but really hard work, pretty tough on the back.  Luckily we have some wonderful male friends and family members who gave up a few days to help out.  We couldn't have done it without the braun for a few of the things (like the cast iron tub that weighed at least 500 pounds).

Sophie's room

During construction

The happy girl checking out her new room.  We added a closet and doors to the outside.  We now have a deck that we can roll her out onto into the backyard.

The after

The room is a soft green with dark pink accents and I LOVE it!  Her bed is a Sleep Safe II electric bed and it is awesome.  There is a sitting area for us and/or the nurses and it functions really well.  It took alot of planning to get to this point but it was so worth it.  We strengthened the ceiling joists in preparation for a hoist, which we hope to get in the next year.  Our nurses are already asking why we don't have one yet since Sophie is getting big and long.  We put in extra power and outlets for all of Sophie's medical equipment.  The electrician put the power outlets high and the light switches a bit low, because he wanted to make sure that when Sophie was older she could use them herself.  It was so awesome I nearly cried when he told me he did that.  The piece de resistance in her room is her beautiful chandelier, I still adore it.

The accessible bathroom was one of the most important features of our remodel.  We knew it had to last Sophie as she grew.  We did a roll in shower with hose attachment (a must), accessible toilet in case she can ever use one and we put in an accessible wall mounted sink.  I purchased a mirror that is on a swivel so that we can angle it down so that Sophie can see herself in it.  Some people choose to add a wall mounted drop down change table for after bathing and for diaper changes but Sophie's bed is so close we didn't opt to do that.  The door is a pocket door which does stop us from putting a lift straight into the bathroom but we have a rolling shower chair so again, it wasn't an issue.  We are very happy there is no door to get in the way within her room.

I hope this helps anyone out there that is thinking of making a house accessible, I know a few friends are on there way to taking the plunge.  :)

And on it goes

We headed back to emerge on Tuesday after a consult with her pulmonologist and her paediatrician because Sophie was still not healthy.  So for her third x-ray in 15 days they found that she still has pneumonia and now she also has an ear infection and is on a third round of antibiotics.   Third times the charm, right?

She still greets me with a smile when she wakes from her sleep in the morning and it just melts my heart every single time.  She is such an amazing little girl and I often wonder what she is thinking while she goes through weeks of sickness like this.

 

Tonight I had a really nice visit with a friend, she brought some fun stuff for Sophie from her little girl to cheer Sophie up and Sophie was totally excited.  She gave some great smiles and was curious to see what was in the shiny pink bag.  :)

Let's just say it was awesome! Sophie had fun discovering the items one by one. There was this really cool light up ball called a Fusion Ball that plays music and shakes and Sophie was mesmerized by it and wanted to see it in her mirror when we played with it before bed. Sophie will often look at favourite things in her mirror (like our faces, the wiggles on tv, etc.) instead of looking straight at them, I think it is part of her CVI or maybe it is just a fun sensory experience for her.

Lucas wanted in on the action too!  I know that we will get hours of fun from all the new goodies.  Thank you Cheri and Julie, it was such a sweet thing to do for my girl!

Champion in our midst

Lucas was a cross country running machine this year.  I have mentioned in other posts about how well he did in the pre-season meets and then also winning 6th at the Regionals. 

On October 18th Lucas was part of his schools group of about 8 boys in his age group that made it to the cross country finals for the TVDSB, a region that spreads quite far in the province including many counties.  He didn't disappoint.

My boy in his day glo shirt from the finals, with his medal.  (I edited the school name so it looks a bit funny.)

Lucas came in an amazing 35th at the finals which was awesome in itself, but that showing also was the key component of winning the Team Championship for the novice boys.  Lucas and his three besties were 1st team!  The team championship goes to the group of four from one school with the top 4 showings combined.  I was not surprised when Lucas and his 3 best friends were able to accomplish that, they are all incredible runners, but more than that, they are incredible kids.
His school had an assembly last week to honour all the amazing cross country athletes and Lucas and his 3 friends were presented with medals, a plaque for the school and a banner that will hang in the gymnasium.  The senior boys were also first team in their division!  An amazing cross country year for their school.

Proud doesn't even cover it.

I know how to do this, really.

The Good
Sophie is feeling better.  But it has been a long 11 days.
We have done this before, dealing with Sophie sick, but it doesn't really get easier.  I hate seeing her in pain, I hate seeing her struggle and I wish I could make it all ok. 

She is done her medicines now and her doctor said that she is now just dealing with the collateral damage of the infection.  Her reactive airway disease is still making her struggle and her body is needing time to heal even though the infection should be gone now.  But each day we are seeing huge improvement. 

Yesterday was the first day I was seeing smiles between the coughing episodes.  She even took time out to make cookies with my mom yesterday when she came for a visit.

She is on the upswing and I hope that she is back to her happy, healthy self before we know it.

The Bad
Tuesday night I had something happen that hadn't happened before. I knew she was about to have a seizure before it happened.  I don't know how but I did.  She was very uncomfortable and wouldn't stop kicking her legs and just wouldn't settle and fall asleep.  I was asking her if her tummy hurt or her head or her legs and so on.  She didn't really respond with anything that I could take as a yes.  Then I asked her if she thought she was going to have a seizure.  She looked so anxious and scared.   I picked her up and layed her across my lap and rocked her, within five minutes she was asleep.  Five minutes after that she started having a seizure.

I think that Sophie was experiencing an aura of the seizure to come, which often happens with some people.  Her anxious behaviour was just so out of place.  Maybe she just needed permission to relax and let it loose.  Who knows.

I so wish my girl could tell me.

The Ugly
You wouldn't know it from this picture but I put her diapers on everyday. I have been putting diapers on kids for 8 years now - why couldn't I figure this one out!!! It was ridiculous!!  It took me 10 minutes to get it looking this good.

I had requested some diapers from our home health care store to try for Sophie because her regular diapers are getting small.  Sophie has had a bad reaction to one brand of diaper so I am trying to get ahead of the game and find something that will work.  This was one brand that lots of moms rave about on a forum that I belong to.  Let's just say I am not sad (or surprised) that she peed out the side of this one in about 3 minutes flat and I won't have to try these on her again for a long time.  :p  

To add to this week's ridiculousness I have a bad cold and Jason sprained his ankle quite badly.  .  Oh yeah, and I found the dog rolling in dog poop in the backyard today. 

Good times.

Visits from the Tooth Fairy and other nightmares

Who would think that loosing your first tooth would throw everyone into a panic.  It is just a regular old rite of passage for every child.  Right?
Sophie doesn't do regular.

Sophie lost her tooth, we think, on Monday at her Child Life therapy program.

 Sophie with her first tooth missing.

Sophie was showing some worrisome symptoms suddenly like choking, gagging and some difficulty breathing while in her therapy program and it wasn't until I noticed her tooth missing when I picked her up that I thought she might have aspirated her tooth.  It was something we had talked to the dentist about before she lost her tooth and they said it was a valid concern, we were to keep an eye on her tooth as it got more wiggly.  Unfortunately Sophie lost her tooth when I wasn't with her and we will never know where that sucker ended up that morning.  We did a full x-ray to see if she had aspirated it but it was no where to be found.  I assume that she coughed it out when it first fell out.

What the x-ray did show was that Sophie had pneumonia. We started her on antibiotics right away but she has become worse and worse over the last 5 days.  Yesterday I decided enough was enough and she needed to be seen again. New x-rays have shown that her pneumonia has become much worse, which explains her terrible state, so we started her on a new antibiotic and prednisone to help with her breathing and coughing episodes.

Sophie fell asleep sitting up while being read to, she was so exhausted.

Passed out with daddy the next day.

She has had such a hard time, it is really hard to watch her go through it.

So many regular parts of childhood play out so differently with my girl.  Who would think that losing your first tooth would be something to seriously worry about, or catching a simple cold, getting your face accidently dunked at the pool, or being able to trick or treat when you can't talk and you can't get up on any porches, getting your haircut when you can't hold still and can't hold your head up well or going for a pony ride.  All little things that can impact a 5 year old's life in different ways.

It's not easy sometimes but we plow on through and hopefully Sophie knows that we do it all for her because she deserves a great life and the fun experiences just like every other child deserves.