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Nate has squatter's rights to Castaway Cay!
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2003
- Messages
- 88
As most of you know, I'm not on the board that much but I know there's all kinds of stuff going on, so maybe I'm not supposed to be posting on here if it's not directly about a cruise. Sorry if I'm breaking any rules...but as they say ignorance is bliss!
First, I need to respond about the post Andy made about Nate being sick. Well, he's not necessarily "sick". That is what the doctor and nurse said. They can see no indication of an infection or virus. We are going to treat the symptoms and if the fever starts to happen all the time, we will use antibiotics. The issue with the weight loss is of much more concern. I will just tell you what the doctor said to the nurse and I "I know you don't want to hear this and I hate to be the one to say it, but Nate is deteriorating. It is the progression of his disease and I suspect it will continue until it can't continue anymore." Now, let me tell you, if Eric and I had a dollar for every time they told us Nate wasn't going to make it, we would have enough money to sail on the Magic 52 times a year! The doctors just tell us what they see and what they think, it's ultimately between Nate and God to decide how long he will be with us. So far we have been very lucky and Nate pulls through. Maybe he has a trick up his sleeve this time too, but he'd better play it pretty fast. To lose anymore weight would be "incompatible with life" as his doctor put it. As you can see though, Eric and I take it all with a grain of salt. We've been given 6 glorious, incredible years with Nate already and that is 4 more than we were told to expect! The doctors could be wrong, he could start to gain weight back, but it took him 6 years to gain 5 pounds, so it's not likely that it will happen this time. The important thing is he still seems very happy, we are able to keep him comfortable and at least for today, life does not seem to be a burden for him. So, please continue to pray for him, we can always use that, but don't let concern eat away at you. If we spend one minute thinking "poor poor Nate" then we will have lost a minute to celebrate his being here.
Now the other thing is, I am a Christmas Card FREAK. I was wondering if anyone wanted to exchange addresses for a Christmas card list? I know it's still early, but what can I say...I'm a freak.
O.k. my hubby just pointed out that it might seem strange to put these two issues together. To other people it might seem like we are uncaring or insensitive to our own son. I think all of you have gotten to know us well enough to know that is not the case. I just don't/can't spend every minute in agony worrying about him. I think it takes away from the gift of his being here somehow. Do I get upset, do I cry, do I want to pull my hair out and scream at the top of my lungs that it's not fair? Sure I do, and when I'm alone in the car or something, I will. But then I get over it and think how lucky we are and how there are some people far more unfortunate than us. Nathan is a blessing to us, a beautiful, brave, strong, perfect, incredible blessing. He is what his name says, a gift from God. We have known from the time he was 36 hours old that while we could love him and care for him for a while, we would have to give him back. Our belief is that this worldly life is but a blink of an eye compared to the full long life he will have in Heaven. Wouldnt it be selfish to make him stay here when he has so much more to look forward to? On this earth, he cant move his arms, in Heaven he will spread his wings and fly ..how can you look at it any other way? I hope you all understand what I mean.
First, I need to respond about the post Andy made about Nate being sick. Well, he's not necessarily "sick". That is what the doctor and nurse said. They can see no indication of an infection or virus. We are going to treat the symptoms and if the fever starts to happen all the time, we will use antibiotics. The issue with the weight loss is of much more concern. I will just tell you what the doctor said to the nurse and I "I know you don't want to hear this and I hate to be the one to say it, but Nate is deteriorating. It is the progression of his disease and I suspect it will continue until it can't continue anymore." Now, let me tell you, if Eric and I had a dollar for every time they told us Nate wasn't going to make it, we would have enough money to sail on the Magic 52 times a year! The doctors just tell us what they see and what they think, it's ultimately between Nate and God to decide how long he will be with us. So far we have been very lucky and Nate pulls through. Maybe he has a trick up his sleeve this time too, but he'd better play it pretty fast. To lose anymore weight would be "incompatible with life" as his doctor put it. As you can see though, Eric and I take it all with a grain of salt. We've been given 6 glorious, incredible years with Nate already and that is 4 more than we were told to expect! The doctors could be wrong, he could start to gain weight back, but it took him 6 years to gain 5 pounds, so it's not likely that it will happen this time. The important thing is he still seems very happy, we are able to keep him comfortable and at least for today, life does not seem to be a burden for him. So, please continue to pray for him, we can always use that, but don't let concern eat away at you. If we spend one minute thinking "poor poor Nate" then we will have lost a minute to celebrate his being here.
Now the other thing is, I am a Christmas Card FREAK. I was wondering if anyone wanted to exchange addresses for a Christmas card list? I know it's still early, but what can I say...I'm a freak.
O.k. my hubby just pointed out that it might seem strange to put these two issues together. To other people it might seem like we are uncaring or insensitive to our own son. I think all of you have gotten to know us well enough to know that is not the case. I just don't/can't spend every minute in agony worrying about him. I think it takes away from the gift of his being here somehow. Do I get upset, do I cry, do I want to pull my hair out and scream at the top of my lungs that it's not fair? Sure I do, and when I'm alone in the car or something, I will. But then I get over it and think how lucky we are and how there are some people far more unfortunate than us. Nathan is a blessing to us, a beautiful, brave, strong, perfect, incredible blessing. He is what his name says, a gift from God. We have known from the time he was 36 hours old that while we could love him and care for him for a while, we would have to give him back. Our belief is that this worldly life is but a blink of an eye compared to the full long life he will have in Heaven. Wouldnt it be selfish to make him stay here when he has so much more to look forward to? On this earth, he cant move his arms, in Heaven he will spread his wings and fly ..how can you look at it any other way? I hope you all understand what I mean.
So, I make a motion that maybe we could send you cards without requiring one in return. Unless, of course, you like the idea of spending about $3,716 on postage and cards this year. Remember, you could sail again for that 
The variety of cards you'll get will probably be amazing considering that so many people try to put some of themselves into their cards.
