Sick Niko

My little Niko is sick.

She caught a cold from Mila.  However this simple cold is really kicking her ass. She has been feverish for over 4 days.  She’s coughing a lot and completely lost her appetite.  She's already lost weight. But the worst part is the congestion.  She’s SO stuffed up.  Her tiny head is filled with mucus and phlegm, making big flapping and gurgling sounds all day and night.  The nights are the worst.  She keeps waking up screaming and panicking because she can’t breathe.  I’m sure she feels that she’s drowning.  As a result I have not really slept in 3 days. 

This morning I noticed that she clawed her left ear to a bloody mess. So I took her to see her doctor. It turns out that she has an ear infection.  We started her on antibiotics immediately.

I really can’t stand to see Niko suffer.  I reject it with every cell in my body.  In fact each time she screams out in pain, I feel the urge to vomit.  It’s a guttural reaction.  If I can’t stomach Niko catching a simple cold, I worry that I will not have the strength to handle more serious issues. 

Despite feeling miserable, she took a moment to become curious about a toy.  Today her speech therapist brought a buzzer switch that causes a pillow to vibrate.  Niko loves cause and effect toys. 

I love how she keeps looking at the therapist with this proud look on her face as if to say, "Do you see what I'm doing?" 

And here is video from last week of Niko with her occupational therapist.  She is massaging Niko’s cheeks to help her develop her cheek muscles.  We are trying to work on her feeding.  Niko is still rejecting solid foods.  Her therapist thinks it’s due to her low muscle tone and her gag reflex being in the front part of her mouth.  We have to work on helping her move the gag relex further back so that she will accept food in her mouth.