I Have a Split Personality

I Have a Split Personality (orig. published 4.15.11)


"What are you doing to myself!!!" screams the tiny boy from his hospital bed.

"WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING. TO. MYSELF!" he screams again.


"Oh. What does that grey button do?" he asks kindly a moment later.

The tears stop. Heart rate slows. Voice lowers. Smile returns. Sure. Because now he wants something. 


I never knew my gentle boy could act this way. I know he's smart, but I never knew he knew the words he's saying. At least not in the sentence form that he's been saying all day. Some of his favorites are "You go away now!, Leave me alone, Please! Please!, Don't touch me, No you won't give me water, No you won't change me until 90 minutes, You hurt my feelings, and I don't like you". A real joy I tell you. These are usually followed up with an immediate change of heart when he sees his favorite cartoon on TV or he notices a new button on a machine that is coming around to run a test on him.


We had some advancements today - his epidural was turned off at 6:30 this morning and eventually removed around noon. He became fully free of wires and plugs and monitors a couple hours later. He was fitted for a new car-seat we get to borrow and a new wheelchair we are also borrowing from PT. Daddy and Colson and Ally all went for a walk today in the new wheelchair and played some Playstation games down in the game room which cheered him up. We also finally moved out of the PICU on the 7th floor down to the recovery rooms on the 5th floor. He apparently preferred his PICU room because he has been protesting the move all day. If anyone wants to hear about it, feel free to give us a call. He'll tell you all about the trauma he experienced while moving (ie: no real trauma).


Playing his iPod in his new room - Happy, yet denying it the whole time

 Colson just asked why I write a story about him and I told him because people like to see how he's doing and he has this to say:


"Uhm, yeah, like you tell them I am really smart, and really strong and go to sleep really hard and I'm not very good at sleeping cuz sometimes I wake up at the nuh-nite time. Cuz when I sleep like this much (holds arms out wide), I just wake up and go back to sleep. Sigh. I don't think I can sleep tonight Mommy cuz I just don't think so."


We are monitoring the swelling at the top of his legs, and the blisters that occurred from some tape that was on there. His legs are starting to feel warm and they are pretty swollen, but he has circulation to his toes and isn't complaining. Let me re-phrase, he isn't complaining any more than usual. He hates diaper changes, as do we. I'm terrified of picking him up. Ally does it like she picks up casted children all day every day. Well, wait. She probably does most days actually now that I think about it. Daddy picked Colson up today and he did AMAZING. I'm secretly plotting one of two things while I lay here awake - 1) How to kidnap Ally for the next 6 weeks. I pay in real Wisconsin cheese Ally! - or 2) How to keep Daddy home from the restaurant for the next 6 weeks. Heh.


Incision site and some swelling


Tiny casted toes



Bumpa arrives tomorrow and the company will be a welcome change for Colson from his parent's (who he's mad at every other second) and his 'doctors' (nurses) who he's mad at pretty much all the time. Bumpa will be a neutral person I hope.


Colson and Raffi are cuddling and watching Alvin and the Chipmunks right now because "I just don't think I can sleep tonight Mommy" - and Mama's about to go to bed.


Oh, speaking of how smart Colson is - I bought him the BrainQuest cards for 4-5 year olds to entertain him while we are here. Yeah... he's WAY past that. I thought, 4-5 years, he's almost 4, that should be ok. Guess I'll go back to the store and try the 6-7 year old cards. :-)

Also - he got to Skype again tonight and at the end, he had a really really great time 'webing' Papa like Spiderman, it really cheers him up to be able to see Gramma and Papa and his sister Cayleigh every night!



Papa is frozen in Colson's Spiderman web

Much love.

-J-

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