Busy Summer!

Every year I say to myself, "I can't wait for SUMMMMMMEEEEERRRRR". I love summer, however I think I forget that summer is just as busy as the rest for the year, but with no break from the kids.

Our summer started out with a 20 hr drive to Idaho for a week with me, the boys and my mother-in-law. Then home for a week and then off to Lake Havasu with the family and great friends. Joey stayed home for this trip. We came home from Lake Havasu to clean clothes and then off we go again. The kids went to sleep away camp for 2 and 3 weeks and I took Joey to Arizona for a week of ABM therapy. Arizona was a great trip. I was there with 2 other wonderful families. The therapy is also an amazing therapy. As for Joey though I have mix feelings. ABM reprograms the central nervous system, muscular and skeletal system. So it makes Joey irritable. Joey's ATNR becomes worse, he stops eating and his sleep changes. It took about 2 weeks for his brain to relax and for him to get back on a normal schedule with everything. It was miserable for about 1 week of this transition. I did notice though that the ABM made him more cognitively aware and his eyes seem to focus more. So I am conflicted as to whether we do this again or not.

We returned on a Thursday from Arizona to start his 40 sessions of HBOT. We drive 45 minutes away 6 days a week until we complete 40 session. Some of the days we then also have to head an hour and a half in the opposite direction after his HBOT to do physical therapy, and then back to HBOT. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. HBOT is not a relaxing therapy as one might think it to be. Joey moves and squirms the whole time. He fusses and cries and just wants to be done. Thank god my babysitter Ashley takes him once a week or so to HBOT.

Now the other children are home from camp and chaos has begun again. Football practices and cheer practices, therapy, registration for Kindergarten and doctors appointments. Work meetings, dog trainers, lost bunnies, amusement parks, LAS VEGAS BABY! and bat mitzvah planning. Dress shopping, school shopping, decisions on school for me, wow, it just goes on and on and on.

So to sum things up, amongst our busy summer schedules, Joey is still making progress. His eyes are coming around even more and he is cognitively more aware. He laughs and talks all day long.