It was my little boy’s birthday last Sunday. J-boy is now two years old. He looks like your normal charmingly happy little boy. We bought him a little cake and invited a handful of immediate family to a small neighborhood restaurant. After eating dinner, the waitress brought out the little cake to the table, and you could tell how happy the little boy was with sparkling eyes and a smile that rival the rainbow. The cake was filled with his favorite fruits, mango, kiwi and strawberry. We lighted up two candles and started to sing happy birthday to him.
He can’t wait, and he blew out the candles three times before we can finish singing the birthday song… and even after that he was still reaching for the lighter, can’t wait to blow another candle.
There was a certain calmness in me watching him that night. To see him so active and happy. To see him laugh and play with his older brother.
To think that just a few months ago, he was down with a strange illness. (I did not post anything during that period) One Saturday afternoon, after lunch, he took his usual afternoon nap and that day he did not wake up normally. He eyes was open and he breath normally but he could not moved anything other part of his body. Everything neck down was paralyzed.
I took him to the ER and they hooked him up with every tube possible. The whole crew in the ER was in the room trying to save him that night… imagine a little room, a little boy lying on the white giant bed with a couple dozen tubes from the ceiling and surrounded by about 15 nervous medical folks in scrubs and gown. My wife was holding my older son outside of the circle, while I was at the head of the bed stroking his forehead trying to keep him calm… and that I was with him. He did not move at all, or talk, or acknowledge me in anyway other than looking at me while I whisper to him. The boy could not even cry.
The ER did know what to do with him. They did not know what had happened to him, so they did all the test, blood test, chem. Test, urine test, x-ray, CATscan… everything. They then call an ambulance and send us to the Children’s Hospital…
He did gain feeling and start crying after doing the spinal-tap… (what a relieve to hear him cry that night)
A later EEG test showed no sign of problem in his brain.
I have been running about without rest for the last few months, getting him tested and evaluated. Begging and finding any expert to help finding out what had happened to him. We finally found someone who seems to know… he thinks that an immediate EMG test when a future episode occurs with finally shade the truth. For all of you in medical field, I think you know what he meant.
So Sunday night’s birthday party for J-boy is really special for our family. To see his smile under the candle lights, his laugh that’s so contagious to everyone around him… just to see him alive… is really special for me.
