19 March - 23 March 2012

I thank God for His grace for the whole week that Dez was away in Perth. I thank God for blessing Charlene and I with good health. And for granting me strength to stay awake at night to feed Charlene milk. I also thank God that Charlene woke up at the right time for neurosuit training in kkh. I also thank God for my parents who came to visit me and provided me with food.

This is how we feel too... (sometimes)

(Note: specific mention that this post is written by Dez).

This is how I feel (sometimes).

Feelings of a dad with a special needs kid. 

This is how my wife (sometimes).

Feelings of a mother with a special needs kid.

Charlene and her mummy is waiting for me to help out with the neurosuit training, so i will follow up my thoughts later...

11 Mar 12 - Charlene responded to question about personality...

As per our weekly routine, our whole family went to church to worship and praise God. Because we were very tired from yesterday wedding, our whole family woke up late. We missed the bus and had to rush down in a cab; we didn't want to miss the worship because its a weekly event that we look forward to.

During the sermon, the pastor asked a question to the audience. He asked those who are extroverts to raise their hands. Immediately after pastor asked the question, Charlene let out a loud cry! The church friends around us were amused and said "yes Charlene, we know you are an extrovert". Haha, which indeed is the case... Charlene likes to be around ppl, and enjoy ppl's company. She's not afraid of strangers and likes to listen to ppl's conversations.

10 Mar 12 - Wedding & Record breaking

10 Mar 12 is the wedding ceremony of our church friends. The couple invited us for the church ceremony at Hakka Methodist Church and a wedding buffet lunch at Sheraton Towers hotel.

The wedding was a simple but solemn affair.  As we know both the couple, we are glad to see God bringing them together. We pray that Lord Jesus will be in their relationship and help them be strong and loving.  

Charlene missed out the whole wedding ceremony altogether and only woke up at the photo taking session. When we went to the hotel for the buffet, she was wide awake, but very calm and quiet. Some of our church friends helped us to look after Charlene so that we could take turns to get our buffet.

The buffet was good! International buffet... the oysters were fresh, the sashimi was good, the chocolate deserts were fantastic and the ice-cream was good quality...! I haven't had such a good buffet for a looonnnnggg time, so it was a blessing to enjoy a good meal among friends. Thank God!

After we reached home, we made use of the evening time to do exercise for Charlene. Managed to do standing and sitting with neurosuit. And Charlene broke her record of holding her head without any assistance! She held her head for 30 minutes! Praise be to God!

Standing was tough, cos it puts a lot of pressure on my knees. We decided its worth while to get a stander.

8 March 2012

Thank God for today as everything planned has been accomplished despite delays. 

Thank God for a taxi immediately after I went downstairs. The driver was very patient and nice too. After waiting for 30 mins, Charlene had her button changed. The nurse was amazed that Charlene's mic-key button lasted for more than a year. She said many people's mic-key buttons only lasted a few months. I told her the doctor ordered me to change it. Well, it is really a little dirty but if not necessarily, you won't change it because one set costs $177. Anyway, thank God for the skilled nurse. She replaced it so fast that I did not even catch a glance of it. Charlene is a strong little girl. She only whined and did not even cry. 

Afterwhich we went to the Feeding Clinic. I was very pissed. I felt that the SLT is not value-adding in any way and I am just wasting my time and effort seeing her. She cannot even ensure that Charlene's sitting position is optimal then asked me to feed her. How do you expect Charlene to swallow when she is in a reclining position? Obviously she will cough and choke. Rather than holding Charlene, she was pushing my pram to an upright position (if it spoils, it's definitely her fault) while it was obvious Charlene was still reclining. Then, after Charlene coughs and chokes, she took prune puree and gave me half a spoonful of it and ask me to feed Charlene. I was aghast. This was the same SLT who told me not to give her anything via spoon and if I want to give her pacifier, must perform suction before and after. And now, after Charlene chokes and still in a very bad position, she wants me to spoonfeed her?!? I was infuriated. I used my left hand to hold Charlene into a 90 degree sitting position and used my right hand to feed her. Then I told her straight in her face "See, she is swallowing". Faint ah..

Charlene is a good girl. She did well in her physiotherapy session in her neurosuit. She sat by herself with arms resting on the bench. She also stand for quite a well. We are really thankful to God for providing us with the second hand neurosuit. According to the PT, the neurosuit company did not get bk to them anymore and there's no news of the new neurosuits.... 

Joshuas n their Fathers

Read the previous post on God Provides. So I had two tuition students whose names happened to be the same - Joshua. So on Wed night, I started a new tuition with a girl. And after chatting about her school etc, I discovered that her chemistry teacher is called John. The description fits into one of the Joshua's father. What is amazing is that the first Joshua's father name is also called John. This is really too much of a coincidence. What are the chances that you know 2 tuition students with the same names and whose fathers' names are the same too? Wow!

5 March 2012 - Charlene broke standing record

Thank God for a productive day in school

Charlene's classmate was late so the teachers brought us to the class next door. Charlene loves crowds. She was smiling so happily. 

Charlene was awake and alert during feeding exercise. She did very well in her feeding exercises. The speech therapists were so delighted to see her so awake and responsive. They have not seen Charlene showing awareness of people talking and were pleasantly surprised. They were also happy to see Charlene being so cooperative as she was positioned in the buggy. In the end, the therapists were satisfied with their positioning of Charlene. 

As it was raining the whole morning, I decided not to let Charlene go for hydrotherapy as I don't want to risk her catching a cold. Instead, we decided to put Charlene in a stander. She hasn't done any standing for 2 months since school re-opened. I suggested to Teacher that we bring Charlene out to the corridor to see the painted wall. Charlene was quite cooperative as she listened to her Mummy "lecturing" on the various sea animals in the sea as painted on the wall. We didn't realize that Charlene stood for 30 mins! She broke her standing record as she has always only stand for 10 mins and will start whining. 

Back at home, we had a good one hour with the neurosuit training. 

I was very pleased and happy with Charlene and thank God for His grace!