I think “Patches” could be an endearing nickname for Dekker at this point, but I’m not sure I’m quite ready for it yet.
Day #2 went somewhat better than day #1. Different dynamics right? Putting it on first thing in the morning was definitely the worst part of the day. He was so mad at me while I struggled to get it on his face. However, he cried for a shorter period of time afterwards. Small victories, I suppose. He ate a good breakfast before our friends arrived for their visit. We are sooo blessed to have friends who recently went through a very similar situation with their kids. Their story resulted in surgery, and they went through the wandering eyes and patching first as well. They are a wealth of information and even better, very supportive in prayer and general concern. So my friend and her three kids came to play/snack/talk about our situations and trade information. I’m pretty sure I had nothing new for her but she had tons of tips for me! Even down to the patches themselves. I asked at the Walmart pharmacy for kids patches and she showed me the box. I confirmed that they were for kids, and she said “Yup, there’s only one size.” LIES! My friend left a few of the patches her boys wear to try for the next day or two, and told me where she gets them. I can tell you 100% that we will be purchasing a box of those tomorrow. When Deks got up from his nap and I had to put a fresh patch over his eye, I used one of hers, and they fit sooo much better! He didn’t fight the power even close to as much, his glasses fit better overtop of the patch, and it pulled off much easier than the ones we had been using before. I didn’t have the heart to take a picture, but he has big red bits around his eye 🙁 Not like allergic reaction redness, but angry stop-sticking-stickers-to-my-face redness. Plus, because the original ones we had were so big and fit too far onto his nose, his glasses didn’t sit right and now he has a big bruise where the one nose pad rests. Sigh. Definitely feels like we’ve already failed somehow. Yet when I look at our situation honestly, I’m not sure how much better we could be expected to do on our second day! I was sooo thankful to have my girlfriend over, and that she had experience in all of this.
Its weird, because as some of you know, I had very similar issues as a child. I was crossed eyed from birth, patched, surgeried, all that good stuff. But I was waaay too young to remember anything, and hot to age myself completely, but technology has come a long way since then. Its nice to have people to relate to who have been through all of this recently. It helps.
That was kind of a haphazard retelling of the day, I suppose. Our friends stayed until about 1pm and Dekker was awake for only 45 minutes before going down for his nap. When he did, I made myself some egg salad. I rarely actually prepare a meal for myself at lunch, but my doctor freaked me out a little bit saying there was protein in my urine, so I figured I’d be good and try a little harder. A tall glass of orange juice later, I was more than ready to eat my eggs. But halfway through my food, my stomach took and unexpected turn, and I had to choke back some VERY unexpected vomit. Pretty unhappy about that whole thing. I blame it on my new iron supplement. I’ve never had to take one before, so this being my first day, I didn’t know the “take with food” rule applied. Pretty sure thats all that was, but it ticked me off. I told Brady what had happened and he responded by saying he was already on the road! So I lay in bed watching YouTube videos until he got home. My favorite new find is just a shorty, but worth the watch!
When he came home, I got Dekker up from his nap, stuck his new patch on, and we came out to see daddy. Brady made me some soup for supper. I had requested it, even though its sooo hot outside. But I ate the whole thing, and probably an entire sleeve of crackers. After dinner, Deks seemed more himself that he has the last two days. He desperately wanted to go outside. So we did. He raced around the deck and kicked a soccer ball and rearranged our chairs and had an absolute blast! It was hard to come inside and go to bed, but he hasn’t made a sound since he went down which is always a good sign.
Best he’s rested up for tomorrow! He’s coming into Saskatoon with us to drop Brady off for a golf game, and then to Grandma’s house we go for the afternoon! Lucky boy he is! Looking forward to taking him somewhere that makes him sooo happy tomorrow!