Thursday, June 7, 2012

It's Been a Rough Week

We try to keep things pretty upbeat around here.  Faith, Feet, and Love is really a blog about hope and about persistence.  It’s about not giving up or giving in.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t feel the grind.   Eli has had a rough time, and so have Heather and I.

We have overcome a lot with him, not just his feet.  We’ve had to wrestle with a diagnosis of Down Syndrome. We’ve been told he may have a fatal kidney issue.  We panicked as Eli tried to choke himself during delivery.  We’ve had a constant struggle with getting the right shoes / braces for Eli’s feet.  And now we’re scheduling an MRI to figure out why Eli is growing so fast.

Babies are supposed to grow about .5 inches / month.

Eli has grown 4.5 inches in 2 months.   On top of this, he seems to be having some issues that may or may not be related to Chiari.  (update: they are not!)

What made us start noticing these additional problems was the way Eli’s behavior changes at night.  He doesn’t seem to mind going to sleep or wearing his braces during nap time.  But when it comes to bed time he throws a fit.

 It’s hard enough to deal with all the sleep issues caused by braces, not to mention the developmental delays that Eli is facing because of his massive size and braces.

There are days when, as parents, we just want things to be “normal.”

Of course, the “benefit” of all of these medical issues we’ve had with Eli is that we have a very good idea of just how bad (and how quickly) things could be worse.  And for that, we’ll always be grateful for a merciful God.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update - you guys are amazing parents to Eli!

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  2. Thanks Victoria. We were thinking of you last night as Eli was kicking and screaming to get his braces off. I just kept thinking about your "Confessions of non-compliance" article, lol

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  3. Just thought you should know how inspiring your blog has been to me. I added it to my favorites bar after find out that our son who is due in September has bilateral club feet. I find myself checking your blog daily to see if there are updates, because it's such a comfort. Please know that through your struggles, God has a plan. I believe you are helping so many people simply by sharing your journey. Thank you!

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  4. Thanks Anna. We appreciate the encouragement. Please keep us in the loop with your son. We'd love to hear how he's doing. As you've probably read through the blog, dealing with clubfoot is one of the hardest things you'll ever do (don't let people tell you it's "easy"!) That said, you can definitely do it. Even on days that seem impossible. And there's something extra special that happens when you get to see your son doing things that seemed impossible only months before!

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