Now

Yesterday was Sonzee's 5-year-old sister's birthday celebration.  It was a planned "girls only" party.  8 girls including the birthday girl were going to spend the morning getting their hair, nails, and makeup done.  My heart yearned for an inclusive experience for Sonzee.  I was apprehensive from the time of booking how this would play out, but I knew it was out of my hands.  I have learned to set the standards high for Sonzee, but to keep my expectations low to protect myself from the potential pain that comes with the "special needs life disappointment".  So, when we arrived at the facility and the girls began to rotate into their respective stations I continuously mentioned that we would try Sonzee, but that it was okay if it did not work out.  I yearned for her to take part without it being stressful for her, without her being upset, and without me wishing the outcome had turned out differently.  

Finally, it was her turn.  I was nervous about how the staffing girls doing hair, makeup, and nails would react to her continuous body movements.  It did require Sonzee's sister and myself to hold her hands and feet to get her nails done due to her kicking her feet around and her desire to want to eat her fingers throughout, but once she realized she was being pampered she settled right down and only got a little nail polish on her shorts and inner thigh.  She did not argue one time while the girl put gel in or combed her hair, or spent time doing a french braid side pony tail.  She loved the glitter shower at the end.  I helped make a beaded necklace with her, to be honest she was not overly thrilled (but those beads are tiny, and I honestly do not care for the patience it takes either).  She danced with her sister, and it brought me such an immense amount of joy watching her be included.  The staff included her, the girls included her, her sisters included her.  My heart was not prepared for the amazingness that occurred.

Lately things have not been the best.  We try to focus on the positive, but the weight of CDKL5 has been increasingly heavy over here.  There is the false sense of security because things have been going okay with the big picture, but the little things are what make the floor fall out from under us in an instant.  When will that happen?  The uncertainty of everything remains only a small thought away, and it takes a toll the further into this journey we travel.  It is easy to get caught up in that ball of yarn.  Yesterday while celebrating the past 5 amazing years I was reminded about happiness and joy.  I was reminded that life passes by in an instant and it will not be slowing down.  I was reminded about Sonzee-stones, simplicity, and the little things.  I was reminded that there is nothing I can do about the future, nothing I can do to fix the past, and that I need to be present in the now.

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Able

It is 1:29am, the house is quiet except for the washing machine and dryer that are spinning in the background, and my headphones playing music that takes me back to my high school and college years.  The lump in my throat keeps trying to bring itself to the surface and I feel the tears in my eyes trying to break free.  I am honestly not in the mood, so I will force a quick swallow and give a fast blink.   Sonzee's "obvious seizure" seizure freedom came to an end today.  As odd as this will sound, we are thankful.  She has not been herself with them gone.  She has spent the better part of the past week crying, whining, chewing her hands and vocalizing her discomforts.  Pain medication has been her only reprieve and we honestly have no idea what we have been treating.  With the return of a new type of seizure also brought her some much needed calmness, and me some much needed steps toward sanity.

There will never be any winning when it comes to this life of hers missing a healthy CDKL5 gene.  Seizures, no seizures, it all sucks.  I am unfazed by this portion of the journey at this point, completely used to it and out of the umph to convince myself that things will ever significantly change at this point.  I keep wondering how we ended up with this as our path to walk, trying not to question why we were the ones chosen to deal with what continues to feel an insurmountable challenge.  I keep wondering when our reprieve will come, when we will be thrown a bone, because it seems more challenges just continue to get sent our way.  It leaves me wondering what am I doing wrong?  What is it I still need to learn?

Tomorrow our middle girl turns five.  I often wonder what things would look like had we stopped having kids after we had her.  Where would our lives be?  How would her and her older brother and sister's lives look like.  It is hard to believe that had we never had Sonzee or her younger brother our youngest would be five years old.  Things would be vastly different.  While it would be easy to say that things could have been easier, that we would not have any challenges, I do not know if I truly believe that.  Having had Sonzee I have always wondered if she took on the task of a challenging life to spare something horrible happening to one of her siblings.

As the years have gone by.  As Sam and I have been given different experiences on our parenting journey some have been more difficult than others.  Each one has impacted us in different ways, and thankfully made us stronger individually and as a unit.  We do not have the answers, we have no idea where this path is leading, or what the story will look like at the end.  What I can say with certainty is that it definitely has not gotten easier, it most likely will not, but I suppose have been gaining the correct tools along the way and each time something new is thrown our way, we are getting better at handling it.  

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Playing the part

I often find myself wondering why people are "chosen" to live the lives they are specifically given.  I like to equate it to casting actors in a movie.  The majority of the time I find myself saying "no one else could have done that role as perfectly, the casting director did a fantastic job".  Occasionally, there are those movies that might have been a bigger success or at least turned out a bit differently had another person been given the part.  However, there is nothing that can be done after the roles are assigned and the movie is created. In all fairness, it is difficult to see how good or bad the movie will be until it all comes together and at that point the actors did their bests, the movie is what it is, and there is no going back to the drawing board.

The thing about casting is that it is highly subjective.  For whatever reason the specific actor was picked and not everyone might agree with that choice.  I find myself wondering if the actor selected always feels that it was the best choice.  Maybe someone else urged them to try out.  Maybe they went for it on a whim.  Maybe they did not really feel they would get it.  Maybe in the end they did not actually want to be that character.  Yet here they are given a specific opportunity to represent this character.  They have to now give it their all and put their best foot forward.  They have to become one with this character as if they have always been this person.  They have to own their role.  For better or worse this is what it is.  There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. 

This week especially this has been on my mind.  I have been cast into the position I have been for literally G-d only knows why.  Despite my hefty desire to shout up at the sky and say "what are you doing?", "why is it I can handle this?", and "how is this even possible?" I am playing this part because it is mine.  I didn't realize I had been auditioning and I am sure someone else can do this entirely better.  I have no idea in what direction this movie is going, or what the end will look like.  All I know is that this was given to me for a specific reason and like I have been doing since April 2015, I will just keep having to fake it until I make it.



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Revelation

"You can't change the outcome, but you will never get the time back"-Raquel Schnitzer

There have been a lot of different things going on lately, none of which I have any control over, and  naturally that sends my brain into a tailspin.  The fear of the unknown tends to paralyze me in a way that makes me over analyze and panic about every little thing.  No matter what I do it is nearly impossible for me to stay focused in the moment and actually be present because I am dreading what might be.  I dislike the feeling immensely, but also have found it an insurmountable task to focus on anything but, until yesterday.

Yesterday was mother's day.  A day that I have been honoring for myself since 2010 when our first daughter was born.  So much has happened to make me the mom that I currently am over these past 8 years.  Yesterday standing outside a Starbucks after painting pottery Sam took this picture.

I studied this picture over and over, and the quote above struck me like a lightning bolt.  Whatever "big picture" outcome is going to unfold in the lives of my children or myself I will never have a say.  As hard a pill that is to swallow, I cannot do anything about it.  I can assist with the twists and turns, but if I spend all my time and energy worrying about where the roads will lead I am going to miss the entire point and joy of this life.  Eventually the answers to all the questions will be given.  They may or may not be the ones I want, but in the end, what will matter is what we all did together and the fun times we had in the process.  

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Handling it...

It has been a year and 3 days since this post was written.  I was around 2.5 months pregnant and too afraid to talk about it, for so many reasons.  I had lost the pregnancy before, we were debating on what, if any prenatal testing we would be doing, and I was so afraid of people who knew our situation with Sonzee judging our decision to have another child.  While the odds of having another child with CDKL5 are extremely rare, especially since neither Sam nor I have a mutated CDKL5 gene, we have 3 other children without a mutated CDKL5 gene, and because Sonzee's mutation is de novo, we were not really concerned that our next child would have the same mutation, but what about something else?  I distinctly remember carefully choosing the closing sentences of that post because I was trying to believe this to be the case.

I do believe everything will be the way it is meant to be, but no, I do not always feel things will always be fine.  I do however believe no matter what it is, you will be able to handle it.

 Here I sit a year and 3 days later wondering if I am "handling it".  Part of me feels like a completely unraveled ball of yarn.  I feel the lowest in my belief of "everything being fine", in having faith that this, our life, is what "is meant to be", and that I am actually able to handle everything being thrown my way.  I do not recall a point in my life that I have been so afraid of what new piece of information I will be given.  When everything "works itself out", will it be what my both my heart and brain want and need?  I do not feel special because I was "chosen to handle" the situations I have been given.  I know it takes a much higher level of person to feel blessed and chosen to be fighting certain battles, and to be honest, I am just not there. 



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Weather

We woke up this morning to a gloomy sky and then some morning rain.  I love that the high today will be 74, which beats the 104 it is supposed to get to over the weekend.  Sonzee was up early this morning whimpering and uncomfortable.  She has been back at this routine for more than couple of days now. The catch 22 of her body ridding itself of Onfi is the fact that she is either more aware of her discomforts or now able to express them.  On the one hand it is so disheartening, but on the other, at least she can communicate with us.  Sadly, it does not put her in a much better position because we are still at a loss on how to help her.

It had been so long since she was in routine apparent discomfort, we were not sure why she stopped complaining, so we let it go.  We were fighting bigger battles trying to get her seizures under some sort of control, which continues to seem pointless, but it gives me something to do.  The seizures I know are an endless battle, the GI issues I feel should have some sort of resolve, yet the hamster wheel continues to spin, and we continue to get nowhere.  It is difficult to decipher if the seizures are causing the GI issues or vice versa, the two are so closely intertwined, we are playing another version of "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" and nothing we try seems to help either.

I feel like Sonzee's challenges are like the rain we had this morning, and weather in general.  They come down hard and unforgiving for a period and then they slowly get worked on, but not completely because there will be sprinkles for some time after.  Then eventually the skies will clear, and the sun will shine brightly, and we will enjoy those days for however long they last.  But the rain will become more frequent until monsoon season is in full force and we will do our best to stay dry.

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Wonder

Last night we went to a BBQ for dinner.  Our friends have so many toys and a huge backyard playground, so it was about 5 seconds after we arrived that the kids disappeared.  The weather was actually perfect for Arizona conditions, which meant we were going to eat outside.  "Perfect" still means too hot for Sonzee until the sun sets, so we parked her wheelchair in front of the screen door so she could be with us from the air conditioned house, and we sat at the table right outside.  The children were running around, her baby brother was being passed back and forth between Sam and myself, and she was happily playing with her hands in her chair.

3 years in and I am beyond the daydream of seeing Sonzee playing with her siblings by the swing set or running around.  My mind knows better than to even go into that zone, but my heart, well that does not always get the memo.  I sat at the table having a fantastic time talking, laughing, smiling, and truly enjoying myself, but part of me was with Sonzee wondering what she was thinking.  Was she really happy sitting in front of the screen? Did she want to be running around with her siblings?  Was she really content?  Does the heat really bother her?

I hate that so many times she is physically with us, but we are not completely present with her.  We are unable to cross over into her world, or be privy to any of her thoughts.  Even though we walk over to her, give her a kiss every time we walk by, and say "hey Sonzee, how's it going?", I feel like we are neglecting her.  I can't help but wonder if what we do is okay, or if she wishes it were different, that we were different with her.  As soon as the sun was out of a direct hit, Sam brought her outside and let her enjoy the breeze.  She loves sitting in the breeze, and so there she sat playing with her hands, looking as if she couldn't be happier.  Yet, I kept glancing over wondering if she could be.

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Inner conflict

I have been staring at an empty blog page for close to 2 hours.  I have so many things going through my mind and emotions traveling through my body.  My inner dialogue is about as organized as my diaper bag, and to lend some insight, I just took out an extra outfit for Sonzee's baby brother that was a size "Newborn"...he will be 5 months in less than a week.  For some reason, the impact of CDKL5 is all of a sudden just hitting me hard, and I cannot escape it. 

While the more rationale part of my brain tells me “You cannot live like this.”, the other parts are not strong enough to win that argument.  The trauma caused by this diagnosis has planted its roots deep into my psyche, making things feel impossible.  I try not to live in the fear of the potential of losing Sonzee on a daily basis, telling myself that “the length of life is not certain for any of my children”.  I am trying to convince myself that Sonzee’s baby brother is going to be a typically developing child, and that when my children have “minor aches and pains”, they are just minor, that they “will not be the worst case”.

I cannot decide if I am spending more of my time panicked about the potential “worst cases” or trying to thwart those thoughts?  Each day I wake up and for a split second I feel calm and at inner peace.  Then the panic fills my chest as if I just breathed it in, and then it finds a nice cozy spot inside and just sits.  I cannot breathe it out, I cannot make it go away.  Every moment from that point on is spent trying to tell myself that what I feel is not healthy and that I need to not focus on these things.  I can only try to take deep breaths, ignore the heaviness, and pray for it to go away. 

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Getting too comfortable

This past week I feel like I have been sucked into an uncertain realm of chaos.  The little control I thought I had over anything has vanished into thin air with such speed that I can feel its whiplash.  I have looked up at the sky about five times since last week convinced that my life is listed in the dramatic comedy section of G-d’s library.  My brain is overtired, I am physically and emotionally exhausted, fear of the unknown is debilitating, and I feel like my world is closing in on me.  Moments like these I wonder where things would be if we did not have the CDKL5 component.  How would I be different?  How would our life look? 

The way my brain functions these days I know has been significantly influenced by what I have been exposed to over the past 3 years.  I know I have reason to have the thoughts and fears I have, but that does not change the fact that I wish that were not the case.  I wonder if there was a study done on my brain in January of 2015, before the birth of Sonzee, and then now, how things might look different.  Surely the psychological effects of watching your child seize every day and face near death experiences must play a role with how your brain continues to function from that point forward. 

I know the events of last week sent me into this 100mph tailspin because they caught me completely off guard.  I bought a new hospital bag weeks ago after a parent in a local support group raved about a new backpack that comes with a charger and speakers among tons of storage pockets.  It was on sale at Walmart and I thought, “I have to have this even though we haven’t had a need for one, because the current bag I use has only two compartments”.  It came and sat in Sonzee’s room with the tags on every zipper. 

Last Monday Sonzee went to school, she had her typical day and had a seizure with her nurse.  All afternoon her nurse, Sam, and myself sat waiting in anticipation for her next seizure.  When it happened at 6:10pm, I said “oh, there we go Sonzee…we have been waiting for it”.  Never had one seizure resulted in the use of 911, or as much medication as we loaded her with, for it to stop.  We have used the same cocktail to help with a day when she has a ridiculous amount of seizures, but this was our first experience with a seizure not stopping on its own, and even after rescue meds.  I guess that is what I get for getting too comfortable.  I guess that is what I get for thinking, “why would I need to have the new bag packed?”

You would think that I would have learned in 3 years there is no such thing as “letting my guard down” or “getting comfortable”.  It is just not possible.  Things can easily change in a minute, seizures have quite a way of smacking me back into reality when I start to get content with what her "typical" is.  I now have her new hospital bag packed and ready to go in her bedroom.  I can bet the majority of the money we have that it will get used again.  It will be when I am least expecting and at the moment I have gathered enough strength to think “things are going so well, how could they possibly change?”

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Today is D Day...

April 16...we meet again.  3 years ago, today I was handed this piece of paper.  You were electronically signed 5 days ago, but I was blissfully unaware.  

Oh, how I pray that the chain of events leading up to that moment never had to happen.  I wish time could go back to the exact moment that the CDKL5 gene was forming in Sonya's body and do something differently.  If only we knew what or if there was something different that could have been done during that one split second.  I still often wonder why she was the chosen statistic and I am still unable to accept this is part of her life or our life, yet there is still nothing that we can do.

Today my heart is heavy, and it hurts.  I cannot officially say it hurts more than it did 3 years ago, but I can certainly say it is different.  3 years ago, my heart hurt because there was a reason Sonya was experiencing seizures and she never would "outgrow" them.  3 years ago, my heart hurt because we were told our 8-week-old baby girl might not develop in a typical fashion.  We were filled with fear and doubts over the trajectory she would travel.  3 years ago, my heart broke as I watched and heard Sam's break.  3 years ago, our hearts broke because we felt like we were at the bottom of the barrel.  

Today my heart hurts because 3 years have passed, and we watch our Sonzee bear seize multiple times a day.  We give her medications that help to an extent, but will never take away her pains, struggles, or seizures.  My heart hurts today because I have watched Sonzee try so hard to hold up her head, put weight on her legs, and try to sit, but her body still has its limitations.  My heart still hurts over the unknown trajectory of her path and the doubts and fears still present every day.  My heart hurts because I am more aware of what a missing CDKL5 actually means.

Over the past 3 years I have watched so many fellow CDKL5 children suffer and lose their lives and I know how real and likely this scenario is likely to become.  The past 3 years have taught me that while the selfish mom in me wants Sonzee here with me forever, the mom who has been present and watched her suffer for the past 3 years begs she won't have to continue to endure the absolutely horrific trials she has had to every moment of her life for so much longer.  

Over the past 3 years I have learned there is not much good that comes with a CDKL5 diagnosis, but good memories, great moments, and amazing friendships can still be made.  There will never be a moment that CDKL5 will ever be far from my mind.  The impact of this string of characters has been monumental.  There is so much I have learned over the past 3 years and so many changes that have been made.  While I wish with every fiber of my being the events that led up to this day 3 years ago never occurred and we were not the ones who had to learn all the intricacies of living a life with a child who is missing CDKL5 protein, that was not the case and we were...so here is to putting one foot in front of the other, waterproof mascara, a few runs to Starbucks and embracing Diagnosis Day. 

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