Six Months!

Vita is SIX MONTHS OLD today. It's kind of a bummer to be passing this milestone living in the PICU, but that's where we are. Vita really is doing better each day. I mentioned in a previous post that botulism recovery is often so slow that progress can be barely noticeable from one day to the next. I've been providing daily updates, but it doesn't always feel like I have much to report. In fact, I don't have anything very tangible to report today... However, Vita just "seems better". She's smiling a little bit more, she spends more time awake, she wiggles around a bit more, she's off the heavy drugs and just managing pain with Tylenol, and she just seems a little bit more like herself. In fact, she's even enjoying some tummy time again! And she's got her favorite toys gathered to wish her a happy half birthday. It's actually kind of interesting crowd... with a mutant gumby, a frog whose head comes off, and a cross-dressing monkey. Before the botulism, when I contemplated Vita's six month birthday, I felt like time went by so fast and I couldn't believe it was almost six months already. Now, time has stopped, and I feel like I've been in the PICU at least six months. Vita had achieved most of the six month milestones at five months, and I'm confident that she'll be better soon and will probably be back on track with her peers in a few months. While I sometimes still have moments of feeling sad or angry about this random and rare illness that came out of nowhere, I know that we have so much to be thankful for. Not all of the children in the ICU have a great prognosis, but Vita is still on track for a full recovery. So it's a very merry half birthday indeed!