The Realities of DS

Phoenix recently came down with a cold/flu that hit her hard and lingered around. Two weeks later and she still has a runny nose . It's been a bad cold and flu  season, everywhere. It's even make the news. But this is the sickest that Phoenix has been in her life with high fevers on and off for 7 days. As a mom, this is really concerning. No one wants to see their baby be sick for this long.We made a trip to the family doctor, a trip to urgent care and then a trip to emerge to find out what the hell was going on.

It was a para influenza virus as it turns out. A bad one. The doctors have been seeing the fevers linger and the virus taking a long time to work it's way out of the kids systems.

But as a mom of a kid with DS I have a little bit more to worry about than other moms. Because in our population of kids Leukaemia is 10-20times more likely to develop and the median age of onset is 3-6. Phoenix turns 3 next week. And often the symptoms of leukaemia are similar to that of having a virus: fever, irritability, crying due to bone and muscle pain, and petechiae. Petechiae are small burst blood vessels that come to the top of the skin, and Phoenix had a small patch of this that appeared the week before her virus hit.

I'll admit it, I was worried. I brought her into emerg at the Children's Hospital because I wanted them to run a blood panel to check her blood for blasts. The blood work came back totally normal, so it was a bit of an overreaction on my part. It was great that for once my mommy gut was wrong.

We're still good, and Phoenix has bounced back beautifully. But a little nagging fear remains.

What am I Celebrating this week?

What am I celebrating this week?

Peeing on the potty.
Snuggling on the couch while reading books and drinking milk.
Climbing up and down the stairs independently.
Learning the new routine at play gym.
Giving hugs and kisses.
Identifying the word "best" on the book "Red is Best".
Counting to 8 in order on her own.
Eating a whole hamburger.
Attempting to say her name.
Starting to regularly attempt sentences. They are not always intelligible, but it is the attempting of them that I am most proud of.

That's what I am celebrating. What about you?

Photo bomb

 Here's some photos from the last few months that I hadn't downloaded yet. And if anyone can tell me how to get the time stamp off of each picture on my lumix camera I'd be thrilled if you told me.

This is from Christmas time when my mom was visiting from Toronto. We made gingerbread cookies and decorated them together.

 Surprisingly, the icing was not done by Phoenix. 

An artist I am not.

And a few from Gymboree