Denis and I have been home for 3 weeks now, 3 wonderful and horrible weeks at the same time.
Denis has been great. He is learning English at a great pace. The other night my brother turned to me at dinner and said that the sounds from Denis had suddenly changed from just sounds to more wordish. I had to agree. He has put on weight, at least a pound if not more. He is a typical 2 year old with the wonderfully inconsistent eating patterns. What he loves today he calls kaka tomorrow. 3 words of Russian commonly are heard in our house, da, niet, and kaka. The later two are heard more often than the first, he is a two year old.
The challenge since arriving home has been my poor sister's health. My brother brought Kathryn to the airport to meet us on the 19th, I hadn't seen her seizure so badly or so awful in years. I had planned to take her home for the Family Day weekend, but she was well beyond my ability to take care of her, so we brought her back to her group home. The following day her caregivers decided they too didn't like how poorly she looked and brought her to the hospital, she was admitted and remained in hospital for a week and a half. Eventually she was found to have pneumonia, whether that was the cause or the affect it is hard to say. After the first 48 hours, the group home couldn't send staff to stay with her, though many of her caregivers went to visit her on their own time. Denis and I visited her most days, sometimes twice a day. We bought her a portable DVD player and brought it with a Lawrence Welk DVD, even though she was feeling awful, she was so happy to watch the show. I have to say the nurses and other hospital staff were great too.
Luckily, after a course of antibiotics she is much better, that was until Friday night when she fell on the stairs and cut her head open. Again she was back to the hospital for another CTScan to check, luckily again, nothing was wrong and after 8 hours she was released and sent home.
The hardest part of Kathryn being ill was my inability to be with her. In the past I would have been at her side from the beginning until her release. Not being able to be there to keep her company and help her through such a scary ordeal was heartbreaking. Every day when I had to leave her in the hospital I felt awful. I am so blessed that Kathryn does have such wonderful caregivers to take care of her.
I knew our lives would change, but boy not so suddenly or dramatically.
