You are all stuck with me writing my TBT again today.... When my daughter, Sydney, was only 8 months old, she was diagnosed with an RSV infection - a somewhat unlikely occurrence in a full-term robust baby. She spent 3 very long days and nights in the hospital with me in quarantine with her. I pretended/tried to sleep in the chair beside her crib, but mostly just listened to her breathe. She went home but the wheezing wouldnt go away, so after a few trips to docs, a sweat-test at CHOP, and lots of sleepless nights filled with tiny little coughs, we learned she had asthma. Moderate they told us. Not severe, but not mild. For the next 4 years, she lived on a regimen of nebulizer breathing treatments three times a day. I learned so much about patience, responsibility, and parental terror giving way to acceptance. Somewhere in our photo albums - and Ill post it if I ever come across it - is a photo of toddler-Sydney sitting on the floor wearing a winter hat (the knitted kind with flaps over the ears and long strings on the sides - oh and a pom-pom on top), pajamas and bare feet. She is looking up at the TV, totally enthralled with whatever was playing, while holding her nebulizer mask up to her own face - it speaks volumes of her lifestyle at the time. As a two-year old, she needed to have some minor oral surgery. When the doc came out to the waiting room after the procedure to tell us how she did, he remarked that in all his years, he had never seen a young child grab the mask (with meds to make her go to sleep) and pull it to her own face. An odd positive from all the nebbie time, it seemed. She had gone to sleep calm and unafraid - a gift from her asthma - who knew? That beautiful toddler will be 15 years old on Monday. She has grown into a young woman of character, heart, charm, and wit. She no longer requires any asthma meds whatsoever - a side effect of her trachea growing long enough to keep the viral triggers at bay. But it will forever be part of the fabric that makes her who she is - and I wouldnt trade one molecule of her Sydneyness or one moment of that time we spent together snuggling during breathing treatments. Happy almost Birthday my little wheezer. I love you.
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 16:50:45 +0000
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