As I have watched the beautiful first-day-of-school photos flooding my newsfeed of my South African FB friends, I have been reminded again of how quickly and significantly our goals and priorities can change. Eighteen months ago having Sam in school was quite high on my list of priorities, one year ago having Sam (relatively) happy and able to thrive emotionally and developmentally in whichever environment necessary became quite high on my list of priorities and saw us returning to homeschooling. This year, right now, having Sam just make it through one day of eating (and, well, pooping) as per his normal would be pretty awesome. Now wouldn't that make an entertaining 'first day' photo???
"The exhaustion of special needs parents" How many times a day I see articles like this whizzing by on my newsfeed. Whizzing because a) my FB is often being glanced at from the side as Sam scrolls to find pictures and videos of friends' kiddos, strangers' kiddos...any kids really and b) because I don't need an article to remind me or my rather small circle that I am exhausted...my (average) eight-hour reply time on messages, repeated "I'd love to, but....." RSVP's on invitations involving anything close to me-time or puffy, saggy, heavily make-upped eyes are evidence enough!! No bashing from my side intended for the special needs parents sharing those posts ð Sometimes you're too exhausted to put your emotions into words yourself, so being able to simply share someone else's beautifully penned emotions so similar to your own, is a blessing. I just occasionally feel even more exhausted after reading these articles because a) I'm now feeling saddened and a little helpless about the writer's (and all those who have shared the posts) struggles and b) there will undoubtedly be something in there that I have forgotten to be anxious about!! Oh and, no, my eight-hour reply time on messages is not referring to the night time spent asleep...because then I'd be replying within an hour or two. ð
The thing is that over and above the physical exhaustion, the emotional exhaustion and the just being exhausted to your very core (And that feels like an actual thing, not just something you say for dramatic effect. It's like the place that keeps your body functioning when your brain keeps sending messages that your neck and back can't take anymore lifting and carrying of your 40kg flappy extension, the place from which your emotions continue to flow so that, even though you have been exposed to the most unimaginable fears and disappointments, you continue to FEEL and don't become desensitized...and the place from which your spirit's butt gets kicked everytime it threatens to start shedding the essence of who you are. Well, at least that's what my core feels like ðĪ·ð
) Anyway, where were we...the thing that makes this exhaustion next level is that there is no defined end sight to keep focused on and because sometimes the end sight on its own is cause for anxiety. There is just no free-wheeling on this path. No stretch of road where you can just loosen your grip for a moment and take a second to breathe because in the blink of a heavily make-upped eye you can find yourself needing to navigate over an unexpected bump or swerve to avoid being slammed to the ground when you hit an even more unexpected pothole!
So you're constantly redefining goals and your ways of achieving them and this is not only your goals for next year or next month but sometimes for next week or even the next day! The only thing that keeps you from being completely overwhelmed is that, despite never enjoying that free-wheel zone, you've mastered the art of stealing a glimpse of the beautiful scenery with one eye while keeping the other on the lookout for that bump and being eager to celebrate each successfully avoided pothole as excitedly (and thankfully) as the first one.
While making the decision to change our longterm goal and revert back to homeschooling was a tough one, the change has brought with it many MANY glimpses of beautiful scenery...one of these being able to put Sam back into his intervention therapies fulltime which in turn has (with the support and guidance of a truly amazing team of ladies) uncovered some pretty awesome (and unexpected) aspects of Sam's development, worthy of a whole new post of its own! And our short term goal starts with some scopes and biopsies tomorrow to determine why the previously, always-starving kid has not been able to eat for the last six weeks. I won't lie, having 4kg's less of anxious flappiness to maneuver into the car has not been all bad, but watching Sam asking for his favourite foods and then just not being able to eat for any obvious reason has been pretty distressing, especially when you can hear his tummy grumbling. Thank goodness for Pediasure ð His whole GI tract in general seems to be unsettled, although x-rays and scans have confirmed that there has been no anatomical changes ðĪ· On the beautiful scenery side, Sam's six week fast should make this the easiest nil per mouth wait ever (?) from 8pm this evening until 2pm tomorrow ðŠI Ishall be sure to flood my newsfeed with our own first-day-back-to-eating pics!
Oh...on another beautiful scenery side...I have discovered that black and white photos are great for camouflaging heavily sleep-deprived eyes!
