Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Other Good People


There are plenty of other good people that deserve mention, but I decided that writing a blog entry about each of them individually would be a little silly and look like one giant shout out (besides I want to get back to the complaining, all this being nice is getting to me ;>).

I want to talk about Dylan's therapists. Not all of them, but most of them were truly amazing remarkable people who worked their butts of to get him to where he is today. They were in constant communication with us and let us know what we needed to do with him to help him progress. Thanks to their efforts, today Dylan is beginning to feed himself with a spoon, he is walking with a walker, he is butt crawling, and doing many other things that we were not sure we would see from him. Thanks to all of their efforts we continue to hope that someday in the future he will be able to fully feed himself and maybe even walk on his own. The few other therapists who were not so helpful I will talk about in a future post.

I want to talk about the family members who have helped us out by watching and playing with and spending time with Dylan. Melissa and I occasionally need a mental health break and to get away from our kids and just be together. That would not be possible without our families assistance and for that we are incredibly grateful.

I want to thank all of our friends who have helped us out by providing us with their support. Whether it was something as simple as calling me after Dylan was born and letting me know that they were there for me and that I all I needed to do was ask whenever I needed help; or just understanding that early on Melissa and I were not very good to our friends as we were lost in our own world; or simply not acting differently with us though our situation had changed. That normalcy that our friends provide us can be a wonderful thing.

Finally, I want to thank all the people who have read this blog and who have left comments on here and who have talked about it with me in person. When I started writing this, I did not tell anyone. Not even my wife. I wasn't sure if anyone would ever see it. It was just a way for me to be able to get my thoughts out. I was shocked when someone actually left a comment on here. Wow, someone did read this. Then the comments kept coming. Then people I knew started talking to me about it. Wow. It was amazing that people were interested in what I was writing. The best part was when a fellow Emanuel Syndrome father commented on here. I actually felt like I might be of some help. For that, I am incredibly grateful to everyone who reads this blog. It gets me incredibly energized and keeps me writing here.
Ill keep on writing it, you just keep on reading it...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oleg: You and Melissa are both truly amazing people. I often wondered how you both got through it all... always showing the brave happy face to others when we saw you.

Dylan is blessed to have you both as his parents (as are Ava and Ethan). And all that you do for him and how you handle life is remarkable and inspring.

Your blog, besides helping you, will help so many others also raising a child like Dylan. We surely will support your cause -- it's a great thing.

Carol (of Carol and Dan).

Stephanie Rese (St-Pierre) said...

Have you ever seen Finding Nemo? Dori says, "...Just keep swimming swimming swimming...What do we do we swim, swim, swim..."

It's what we gotta do, right? We keep on swimming - but for you, let's add - just insert the word "blog" for swim - it's a good thing :)

Dads need to post - you're a trailblazer.