Once we were settled at home after Patrick’s infection, Brian finally dared go to a doctor. And, after some searching, came back with a diagnosis of mono. It hit him really hard! Fevers that were only controlled by taking maximum doses. Exhaustion. Aches. Pains. He was miserable. For the next week, he worked when he could, and then he’d come home and sleep all he could.
I don’t know if it helped or hurt that the car was in the shop. On school days, it meant that Patrick and I got up early and drove him into work and then sometime in the afternoon, went back and got him and brought him home. That meant sometimes that he got home earlier, but sometimes it meant that he was stuck at work while we finished up with a therapy appointment, too.
I also wasn’t much help myself, having picked up a virus of my own. Thank goodness for little whispers of inspiration. I was watching Patrick’s birthday video with him for the 300th time and realized how similar it was to the Signing Time series, and that if he was immitating words and actions he saw in his home movie, he might just be ready to learn to immitate signs and words. So I brought home all the DVD’s I could find at the library and Patrick..LOVED..THEM! Patrick has never been much of one for TV, but these videos reach him! And so, since I wasn’t feeling great and Brian needed sleep, we spent a lot of time curled up in the basement watching Signing Time.
Within a week, he was already using many new signs and demanding songs from these videos as lullabies at night.
And so, we survived that week. At first when I found Brian had mono, I freaked out, worrying about what would happen to Patrick if he caught it. I mean, a basic cold can set him back for a month. But, when I called the transplant team to report our bad news, they were kind of excited. They said it would really be better for Patrick to catch mono before transplant so he wouldn’t be at risk for it’s complications if he was exposed after. Therefore, as a family we did a lot of kissing and food sharing all week.
It was a tough week. I often take Brian for granted. And I missed his help a lot while he was sick. Thankfully, after just a month he’s seeming to feel much better now. Tired from time to time, but feeling like himself.
And by the beginning of week 3, we had our car back at last complete with a shiny, new engine. We also managed to squeeze in an OT and PT evaluation and the first therapy session with Patrick’s new speech therapist. Not too shabby for a very sick family.
Patrick Hoopes 