Today was the first day in weeks that he woke up and wasn’t in tears. He was more settled with his circumstances. We had a quiet rainy morning in, and naturally he had some ups and downs but he was determined today to do things on his own. He made pasta by himself, and later a sandwich “because I CAN do things myself” he said.
He got on the rebounder himself today and gentle bounced for two full minutes to activate his lymphatic system and detox a bit. He was able to get off himself as well. Mobility is slowly coming back with small increases in confidence, and he even made it out to visit the kittens in the barn, and hung out in the shed with a Mitch for a bit.
Steroids still affect him and there are flares of fear and anger. He’s counting down the days to getting a break from them and so are the rest of us (2 days left)! His round “moon face” has really changed how he looks and he’s self conscious of it. It should subside when the steroids stop, but in the meantime he’s going to try to drink more water , eat less salt, and more avocados, bananas and green beans to help minimize the water retention.
He has begun to worry about his port insertion which will take place on Friday. I am trying to remind him to not get too far ahead of himself and simply focus on the next step immediately ahead. The fear of the unknown is natural, but being in a constant fear state isn’t, so lots of talking things out, sharing stories of others who have said the port is so much better than the pic and trying to be nonchalant about it so he can feed off of our energy.
Overall, it was a good day. A normal day. He’s working through this in his own way and in his own time, and I am just trying to be a constant touchstone for him— there for him when he needs me but showing him that I trust him to do things on his own too. A kind and knowledgeable person on here told me to “stop treating him like he’s sick” and that really resonated with me. Today was the first full day of trying to just live life as usual and Lochlan started to live a little too.
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