Every Day is a Miracle

The worst nightmare of my life began in our little house on Wall Street thirteen years ago. Patrick was in his car seat in the corner of our living room under the gorgeous chesnut molding stairway. As I was running around cleaning up as he slept, I dropped something I cant even remember what and it caused a loud bang. When I turned to see if I had awoken Patrick I saw that indeed he was already awake but to my dismay he was not startled by the sound. I went up the staircase and dropped the object from the stairs above him and again there was no reaction. As my heart sank and my worries began every doctor said "dont worry he is a fat healthy baby." And yes the day before his DTaP at 6 months of age he was a fat healthy baby weighing in at 21 pounds. Over the next 48 hours his brain swelled, his belly swelled and all the doctors treated me like I was nuts; nothing was wrong with Patrick. Even my brother tried to calm me saying "there is nothing wrong with your baby" but I knew there was. When he was admitted to Overlook Hospital it confirmed that his brain was indeed swollen and that encephalitis was threatening his life. All of us are guilty of taking the small things for granted but today I never see things as small. This morning I walked Patrick out to the deck so he could enjoy his breakfast outside. I went in to make his breakfast and when I came out through the sliding door the screen door hit the casing and made enough noise for Patrick to look directly at me and the door. Since his injury Patrick's hearing has been acute but his vision was for some time classified as cortical visually blind and has progressed to cortically impaired. What that really means is that all along the brain was fine and the eyes were fine but the signals between the brain and eyes were not functional. Since his first hyperbaric treatments and until a month ago Patrick would have startled at the sound of the door or any noise but he would have NEVER turned his head and visually known which direction the sound came from. His vision has been improving over the past ten years but NEVER has his acuity been able to put the two senses of hearing and sight together and appropriately respond. Patrick has brought three spectators to tears over the past two days with his little miracles. Some have even asked is it just me? Am I just hoping too hard? No we are all just seeing the miracle of development at Patrick's pace which is all so much slower but even more gratifying than that of the normal child. Seeing it in slomo makes you appreciate the beauty of every baby step and understand its importance. God thank you again for our intelligence and our will to survive. Thank you for the wonderful doctors that look outside the box and thank you thank you thank you Cranford.