A very humbling reminder that all this prenatal testing / pregnancy termination stuff is complex, a difficult (and private/individual) decision, and heartbreaking:

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/02/rick_santorum_and_prenatal_testing_i_would_have_saved_my_son_from_his_suffering_.html

In re-reading the Rutabaga entry, I'm concerned that I may have come across as not only callous myself (to anyone who has faced this decision), but that I also portrayed the decision to terminate a pregnancy after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, as one that is made callously and easily by parents who are really shallow and flippantly decide they can't handle a child with special health & developmental needs. I hope I made it clear in my two disclaimers that's not the way I feel, but ...

On Guard

Today I drove to Greenville SC for a continuing ed training. How long does it take to get to Greenville from where we live? Exactly enough time to listen to the Green Day CD American Idiot two and a half times. The first half includes the song "Dearly Beloved," which I'm sure I have noticed before contains the line, "oh therapy/can you please fill the void?/am I retarded or am I just overjoyed?" so I got to hear that one 3 times. Perhaps I have always sort of actively ignored it, but I'm a bit touchy after the church thing yesterday. Eh. Yuck.

Oh, and: http://www.r-word.org/

Giving the band the benefit of the doubt, I tried reviewing all the lyrics to see if there is possibly an appropriate context. But it's a concept album, so who has time to try to sort that out, and since when is a Green Day song about anything, really?

Why did I force myself to listen to it 3 times? The drive was stressful (lots of turns and road-numbers-not-names) and I have a really silly CD player in my car that requires this extra step to take anything out, and I was already managing a cup of coffee in addition to Mapquest directions, and it was dark (6:00 a.m.) Etc., etc.

So I listened to Beck's Guero on the way back. I think that one's clear; even when he slips into Spanish I happen to know the Spanish word is retraso, FYI.

Eh.

Had to call out a kid at church today for saying something was "so retarded." A somewhat young kid. Sigh. I'm still not quite sure of the best way to handle it, and sometimes wonder if it's of any use whatsoever. But there is a definite funny feeling in the stomach area when I hear it. Yuck.

A quick response, which has left Joanna feeling sheepish

We received a letter today from Dr. Kirshbom, David's heart surgeon, in response to the letter we recently sent him (see following post). I am impressed with the turnaround time, especially since it took me about a year to write mine. Perhaps he is an adherent to the "only touch paper once" rule; this is something to which I aspire but consistently fall short. And I'm guessing someone does his dictation, which might really speed up things for me too. Keep going ....

Hey hey Dr. K (a letter to DM's heart surgeon)

Dear Dr. Kirshbom,

(This letter has been a long time coming, but if you have or have had small kids, you know how things can just slip away …)

You performed an AV Canal repair on our son, David Moses, on 8/12/2010. At the time of his surgery David was 4 ½ months old, and had already endured a 92-day NICU stay – he was born at 32 weeks’ gestation, weighing 2 lbs, 13 oz. David has Down syndrome and faced multiple other health challenges before his surgery.

We just wanted to let you know that David is doing fabulously. He is now 22 months old, and weighs about 23 lbs. He is not standing or walking independently yet, but will pull up to stand on anything that will hold still, and he is cruising along the couch proficiently. Medically, we are thankfully at a point where most issues are just regular-kid stuff – stomach viruses, pinkeye, etc. David received the Synagis/RSV shots last winter, and again this year. Medication-wise, he has Prilosec 2 x day, Xopenex and Pulmocort 2 x day in his nebulizer, Levothyroxine 1 x day, and a multivitamin – that’s it! A couple of months ago his nutritionist finally gave her blessing to take him off of formula, so now he does whole milk. He still eats some Stage 2 and 3 baby foods, but he mostly eats table food and is working on feeding himself with a spoon.