4 Weeks at Home

After three months in hospitals following his terrible accident at the beginning of the summer, Graham has now been home for four wonderful weeks!  It is amazing at just how normal it feels to be at home, how busy we have been (hence the sparse updates, which I will attempt to return to write at least weekly once again), and just how big my smile gets every time I see our cute little superhero.  I can't look at him without thinking of all the miracles it has taken to get him to this point, and seeing him day after day just fills my heart with joy.  So about Graham...

First of all, Graham's health is fantastic.  We take him in twice each week to get his sodium checked, and thus far it has been perfect.  It's a lot of work - we measure each and every time he goes pee, and the school nurse does the same.  We take into account how active he has been and make sure he drinks an appropriate amount to compensate for his output and activity.  And so far we have been doing ok.  He doesn't seem to be having the ups and downs he had in the hospital.  We haven't had to make any trips to the ER as the endocrinologist at Cook Children's was certain we would.  And so our concerns about managing his diabetes isopodous have been much ado about nothing thus far.

Graham's school has been amazing.  The Tuesday after we got home we had a huge conference with no less than 15 people in the room from the hospital, the school, and the district.  We spent nearly two hours discussing all his needs and the precautions that need to be taken, and they were so willing and eager to accommodate.  The end of the meeting was particularly special:

Graham's principle walked up to us at the end of the meeting and said she wanted to introduce the new school nurse to us.  She said "Things are really going to come full circle for you guys."  The school nurse, with tears in her eyes, went on to explain that she was the dispatcher who took the call when Graham's accident occurred.  She said she had never stopped in the middle of a call before to say a prayer, but that she did for Graham.  And she confirmed what we have known all along - based on what she heard on that call, it is a miracle that Graham is alive.

The rest of Graham's first week home was spent preparing for him to go back to school and adjusting to life and a schedule at home.  I went back to work.  We went to appointments with therapy, doctors, and his ophthalmologist, which is an appointment we were especially excited for.

The start of the appointment was about what we expected.  He looked in Graham's right eye and like before, his optic nerve was a bit on the pale side - a sign of the damage that had occurred.  The blood in his eyeball, however, was gone.  It had been mysteriously absorbed back into his body, leaving a clear path to the back of his eye.  His left eye (good eye) sees at just over 20/200 uncorrected, making Graham "legally blind."  It is correctable to 20/90, which is technically good enough for him to drive in ten years or so though.  At the end of his appointment I asked the doctor to test his right eye a bit more to see if any light was making its way back to the brain, mostly to satisfy our curiosity.  What happened next made my jaw drop.

The doctor patched his left (good) eye, while I carefully forced open his right eyelid.  Expecting the doctor to just shine a light in his eye, he instead held up his hand directly in front of Graham's blind eye in what I assumed was a pointless exercise.  He asked Graham if he could see his hand, and to our astonishment Graham said "yes."  He moved his hand out of Graham's field of view, and asked if Graham could see it, and he said "no."  He repeated this test several times and Graham passed each time.  The doctor then shined a small light into Graham's eye, and each and every time he flickered the light Graham could correctly identify it.  Graham could even correctly identify the number of fingers that the doctor was holding up.

We were both blown away.  Just another in a long list of miracles for our little superhero.  Since the appointment, he is opening his eye much more, although it is not back to normal yet.  And while his eyeball does move, it does not track down and to the left - an indication of damage to one of his cranial nerves.  But still - his vision is clearly back to a degree in his blind eye, and slowly but surely it seems to be improving.

I mentioned earlier that Graham's school has been amazing, and that is not limited to the teachers.  Graham is like a little rock star at Ogle Elementary.  Everywhere he goes, wonderful kids in all grades cheerfully say "hi Graham!"  They offer to help him out.  They are careful around him.  They just could not possibly be any better.  I think kids must just be nicer now than when I was a kid.  I worried a lot about Graham getting teased and bullied when he went back to school, but it has been the complete opposite. 

Home life is very normal.  Graham plays with his toys, his Legos, and the occasional video game.  His brothers know that rough-housing is strictly forbidden with Graham.  And Graham and Rocco are constantly bickering - just like before the accident. We still run the kids all over town to various sports and activities, and Graham is the #1 fan at all the games.  He is still the first o volunteer for chores, and in true Graham-fashion he has yet to break a rule since being home.  He is basically a parent's dream-come-true.

Graham is a walking, talking miracle and a testimony of the power of prayer.  Often throughout the day I think about this past summer.  The horror of seeing him in the neighbors driveway with a disfigured head, the peace that Lindsey and I felt as the prayers started to pour in on our family's behalf, and the joy of witnessing Graham's amazing recovery.  Thanks will never be enough for how indebted our family is to all of you, but thank you nonetheless for your continued support and prayer for Graham and our family.