Survey This!

When I started this blog...I wasn't sure the intention beyond the surgery and recovery. Of course at the time I started it, the recovery was only a few months. And it was going to focus on Alistair's recovery, not all of our recoveries! But here we are, 5 years and change later. This year's anniversary came and went. With Covid-19 happening, being quarantined to our house, bringing a new puppy, Luna, into our home, after losing Piper in December, and getting used to our new house we moved into in January - we had so much going on, we hardly knew what day it was.

                                     

What prompted this post was some mail I went and grabbed from our tenants living in our old house which is now our rental. The only reason I went to get it instead of asking them to recycle it was to change the mailing address because I knew there would be more mailed in the future. It was from the Mayo Clinic. Each year they send a survey asking how your child is doing post heart surgery. It is 8 pages and every question starts with "Post discharge from your child's cardiac surgery (date provided on front page)." Each question ends with topics like activity levels, symptoms, procedures, medications, etc. I don't know if I have ever filled one out and sent it back. I find it hard to compartmentalize the cardiac surgery from the rest of the what happened. Yes my son has normal activity levels compared to kids his age because after he almost died after his heart surgery, suffering an hypoxic brain injury and had to spend months in the hospital in intensive rehab followed by years in OT/PT appointments, he is able to be normally active. There isn't room for that response. I feel like all my responses, for the most part, need to have an asterisk next to them. The most heartbreaking and jarring part is the cover letter they send, specifically the box at the bottom. It is sobering to realize how things could have been so much different and that it is common enough to include it on the cover sheet. 

It certainly makes one grateful for what you have, even if it wasn't how you expected it to be. And we are so grateful for Alistair. He continues to be an amazing kid who still has the best attitude whether it is in the face of adversity or just because. He expresses his displeasure with things, but it is more of a "I don't like this, but I understand why it is that way" more than just being upset about it. He is getting braces put on in about a week or so and had to get two adult teeth removed earlier this week. He isn't happy about the braces and wasn't thrilled at having a jack o' lantern smile for a bit, but he opted to do it now instead of wait to get it over with. And then he moved on. He wishes school was in person but understands why it isn't. He came down the other day and told me that it was actually kind of fun to do school this way and that he thinks it will work just fine until they can go back. He is a silver lining kid!