Ewen has always loved swimming and was so excited when my parents bought a house with a pool in the back yard last year. But when he got sick in December he became afraid that he would drown in the pool. Over Christmas my parents had it heated to 80 degrees and my sister who was visiting from NY and her family, swam every day. But Ewen hid away in the computer room and didn't go anywhere near it.
Today was the last day of the intensive CBT therapy. He is going to continue with CBT one or twice a week indefinitely. But today was his "graduation" so the final challenge was to swim in Grandma and Grandpa's pool. They got it heated up to 76 degrees which is still a bit cold. Katie and Matt met us at my parent's house and Katie jumped right in the pool first. Then Ewen had to jump in next. He was not excited about it, and when he did jump in he swam just fine across the pool but he was freezing and wanted to get out. So they eventually got out and then he played a game of ping pong on the deck with Matthew and was happier doing that. My mom got a bit teary because Ewen was doing what he had always loved to do before he got sick. It was such a relief to see him participating and even enjoying what he used to enjoy. Having him back to his old self, even a little bit, is amazing.
I love how his therapists met us at my parents house. Last week they met us at Publix Grocery Store because Ewen was being really weird about going to the store. So they went there with him and even made him do an eating/swallowing challenge IN the store which he wasn't too happy about but did it anyway.
Katie is so good with him. He trusts her and she doesn't force him to do anything. She persuades and encourages and coaxes him. I realized today at the pool session when we were talking about him getting in the pool again later in the afternoon when it was heated up even more, that she was an amazing therapist. She was able to get him to agree to swim again and they thought of some rewards for doing it (half an hour of Agar.io and some MnM's. I thought about how ironic it was that he was getting a reward for swimming in a lovely pool in the sunshine. Swimming in the pool should be a reward in itself!
The best part about it was when he went swimming again at 4pm. It was 74 degrees outside and the heater had boosted the pool's temperature enough (80 degrees) that I could get in too (I'm a huge wimp with cold pools) and his 6-year-old sister came for a swim too. We all had a lot of fun and played catch with a beach ball. I was brimming with gratitude to all be having fun again like we used to before all this happened. It was so awful and sad at Christmas. What a relief to move a little more into our old normal, although nothing still feels the same. At some point, that will be OK.
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