December 25, 2005
December 25, 2005 | Updates
Well, Christmas Day has come and gone. This was a difficult Christmas for us. It was hard to shop for gifts because everything reminded us of the things Samuel would ask for if he could only speak to us. And visiting Santa made us sad that Samuel couldn’t come. There were a lot of parties that we either missed or went as an incomplete family because the stimuation and the chance of cold would have been too great for Samuel. And of course there was always the thought in the back of our minds that this would have been the first Christmas Samuel would have understood that Santa was coming and been excited about the presents under the tree.On the other hand, this was a wonderful Christmas. It’s almost hard to understand why it was unless you experience it. But the generosity of others and the kindness in the hearts of all those we associate with was so touching and comforting. And then there was just the gratitude that our family is still complete and that we have Samuel here with us. Something about this Christmas was a little more magical than all the rest. It was just a little more like Christmas should be. The presents didn’t matter as much. But the spirit in the air was so great. It will always be a Christmas that we remember!
Samuel had a VERY good day today. The other boys woke us up at 6 am and hauled us downstairs to open gifts. Samuel was upset at first until we had the boys sit in front of him as they opened their gifts. Then he lay contently on the floor and seemed interested in all they were doing. After about an hour, he dozed off in the midst of the excitement. But once all the unwrapping was done, his eyes popped open again and we helped him unwrap his gifts. He was pretty content and sat on my lap and I took his hands and ripped the paper of his gifts. He seemed very interested in what each gift contained and especially interested in the new movies he got. It was fun to see his reactions!
We spent the rest of the day lounging and watching TV and just enjoying the day. Samuel dozed off a few times during the day and contently watched a few Christmas movies with us. He even seemed to get upset when we paused one of the movies to fix ourselves dinner. And for a short time in the afternoon, he played with his new “barn and animals”. He seemed happy playing with them and pretty interested in the little animals and the sounds they would each make.
Samuel was calmer today than we have seen him since his accident. He probably cried or postured a total of 30 minutes all day long! It was a VERY nice Christmas and so fun to just hold him on our laps as he relaxed for most of the day. He also seemed very aware today and just content with all that was going on. And all this despite the fact that he is now down to 1/4 his original dose of tranxene and we will discontinue that medication for good tomorrow.
Samuel’s leg seems to be doing fine and not causing him any pain or agitation. He did make sure that he ended hyperbarics with a bang! He bit both his checks, both sides of his tongue and his bottom lip during his last session. He also pulled his feeding tube out while he was in the chamber that day. What a stinker! Needless to say, we were not too disappointed to take a break from it for a bit :-). It was quite a taxing day!
So things will hopefully settle into a nice routine within the next few weeks. We are working with insurance to get more therapy and it looks like that will happen. So we will continue to do all that he and I can handle in a day. And each day is different depending on Samuel (or me :-)). But we are mostly excited to see him calmer and praying that will continue so he can start concentrating on bigger and better things than arching his little back!
We all hope you had a VERY, MERRY CHRISTMAS! And that you know how appreciative we are of all of you and so many others. Keep praying! We need it!
Love,
The Jewkes
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