Saturday 13 March 2010

The Rogue's Progress

It's been a funny few days, both of the Ha Ha and the peculiar variety. Boy wonder has settled down again in school after some post Christmas glitches. He is now regularly allowing me to brush his teeth with toothpaste. At school he is wolfing pots of Petit Filou yogurt and drinking water from a cup, however his lips remain sealed to food at home. This 'some places I'll eat and some places I won't' development has led me to my latest ground breaking clinical analysis of my nutritionally challenged son: it's a sure case of he's a pup and I'm an eejititis. A very common condition apparently, among six year old son's and their mothers. The only known cure is large doses of common sense and intravenous patience, in some cases it can lead to carer transplant, at it's most chronic, clinicians have been know to call in Supernanny!

Life being too short to obsess and our health being good, I prefer just to be grateful for the progress we have made; it seems like another life time when I wrote this post. Since this time last year, boy wonder and his mad mother have changed so much that we can hardly imagine how we used to cope back then, when life was so challenging. Although our support services have been moved from the Tallaght-Hospital-type basket case that is Enable Ireland - we have yet to see anyone from our new service provider. After the initial meetings in December we were told we would be seen by February 2010. February came and went, March is halfway out and still we wait. That wait no longer keeps me awake at night; I consider that to be the most amazing progress of all. I no longer feel like my son's development is being compromised by bloody minded bureaucrats. We have taken back control and we are moving forward. A sense of control is the alchemy we lacked for the last six long years. We can now transform obstacle to advantage despite the best efforts of the HSE to bludgeon us into silent submission.

We are the lucky ones, 58,000 patients who attended Tallaght Hospital for X-rays may not be so fortunate.


I am also very happy to announce that my ramblings have been shortlisted, in some very auspicious company, for an Irish Blog Award in the Best Specialist Blog Category. I am humbled by the nomination and amazed that people other than my nearest and dearest take the time to read this blog. Although I have said this many times, I will say it again - your companionship has lightened our load, and for that, we thank you.



Cheers,
Ann





2 comments:

steph said...

Ann

Delighted to hear of the progress in your camp.

You've cleverly identified the necessary formula for surviving any long-term illness...

"We have taken back control"

Good on ye and long may it continue!

And heartiest congrats on getting shortlisted. It's very well-deserved!

AnnB said...

Thank you Steph as you well know, any little inch of control is helpful when you are at the mercy of the health system.