“DAD” ROBBIE UPDATE 41 - 2/5/2009
Yesterday, I heard my son say “dad” for the first time in almost two months! It was long and slow and the “d”s sounded a bit like “n”s but it was the most beautiful sound I’ve heard in a long, long time.
He had his best night of rest the night before last, sleeping from 10pm to 10:30am with only a couple of waking moments to “outpee”. He had another good day of improvement yesterday. In the pool, he was able to move his limbs fast enough to make a splash and enjoyed trying to splash his sisters who were sitting next to the pool. He had another very difficult two to three hours of “hurts all over” and itching which seems to be continued withdrawals from his meds as we try to pull some of them. We had a “prayer warrior” with us at the time and he asked us all to anoint him, pray, sing and, even in the middle of all his pain, read scripture over him. He asked for a story about Paul.
PLEASE PRAY THAT ROBBIE WILL BE HEALED OF THE NEGATIVE SIDE-EFFECTS AND/OR WITHDRAWALS FROM HIS MEDICATIONS.
When he finally began settling down from that, he was moving around and looking great and enjoying a movie with his sisters. His Uncle Carter, whose goal is to make Robbie laugh every day, came in and began his always-successful attempts to get a laugh out of Robbie. I started encouraging Robbie to try to make the “p” sound. Why? Carter told him a few days ago that the first time he can say “pink panties”, his Uncle Carter will wear some in celebration. :-)
Robbie started trying to talk. Every time he has tried before, he would begin to try and then get so upset (because he was unable to) that he would get overwhelmed with agitation. Sometimes, just the effort of making a simples sound would cause his muscles to seize up. Well, yesterday evening was definitely a breakthrough in that. He started trying to make every sound he could think of that included the vowel and consonant sounds he was able to do: “Dad, mom, Beth, hi, yo, mamaw, oma” and so on. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Even our med-tech and nurse started getting teary eyed - they both said “Praise God” as well - they all know of Robbie’s faith around here. Everyone who came in to the room heard him try to say their name and started crying as well, “Oma, Opa, Becca”. We even called my mom so he could say “Mamaw”. Before leaving that evening, he hugged us and slowly and aggressively said, “Aaahh Llluuhh Oooo”. He said “I love you” to his mom, dad, and both sisters. And, of course, he continued to sign “Thank you God” throughout.
It was a sweet time even with the knowledge that there is a road ahead. We pray the road is shorter than the “experts” might have guessed . . . all to the glory of God.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers.
Ken
