Divine intervention?

Last week, Luke and I were in the city at Children's for his post-op appointment with Dr. Reynolds.  It was my first time trying to do his G-tube feeding out of the house, a task that wasn't so easy without the convenience of our IV pole, especially since we are supposed to be doing oral motor activities while he is getting his feeding.  So we were sitting in the main lobby, it was already about 2 hours past his normal feeding time = Luke not happy, I was trying to hold up the IV bag so the gravity would work in place of the IV pole, the feeding pump kept beeping over and over and needed to be restarted every couple of minutes, I was trying to do his oral motor activities, and, well, you get the picture.  Clearly, I was a little flustered and worried about my hungry child chewing on his hands because I couldn't get this darned pump to work.  Knowing we had a good drive ahead of us back home, I had to forge ahead and make this work.

Then, out of the blue, a sweet, gentle elderly man walked up to me and said, "You know, it's funny, we spend the first two years trying to teach these kids how to walk and talk, and once they hit the age of 2, we start telling them to sit down and be quiet."  I thought it was a cute story and chuckled with him and smiled, as I know he was trying to relieve the stress I was obviously feeling.  Then all the sudden he put his hand on Luke's head and asked me his name and how old he was.  After I told him, the man looked down at Luke, smiled, and said something that gave me an odd sense of peace.  He said, "I have a direct line to 'the man upstairs' and he says that little Luke is going to be just fine."  Now, I realize we were at  Children's Hospital, so it probably wasn't too much of a stretch for him to assume that Luke had some health issues, especially given the tube/bag/pump that I was trying to feed him with.  Divine intervention or not, we received great news that same week regarding Luke's 48-hr EEG (to check current brain wave patterns)...

Dr. Coker, Luke's neurologist, wanted us to come in last Friday to discuss the results, but his nurse assured me that it was good news and I didn't need to worry.  Dr. Coker just wanted to do some more research and consult with other neurologists before going over all of the details with me.  He started our appointment by saying, "This just blows my mind, but Luke has three new diagnoses."  I immediately started worrying and thinking, well, how could that be good news?  He went on to describe the diagnoses:  paroxysmal tonic upgaze (eye movements/rolling up), benign infantile myoclonus (leg jerks), and sandifer syndrome (arching of neck and back - related to his severe reflux).  Again, in my mind I was thinking, why is this good news?  He flashed a huge smile and continued by telling me that these are all diagnoses that Luke should eventually outgrow, then he gave me a big hug and said that none of these things are affecting his brain (as the infantile spasms and opsoclonus myoclonus had).  Just as when the man at Children's assured me that Luke would be fine, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace.  It is hard to explain the tremendous pain and worry you feel as a parent when you know that your child's brain is experiencing some type of trauma.  Though we still have to worry about possible relapse with the other neurological disorders, for now we can rest a little easier knowing that the movements we've been seeing more recently are not seizures and, more importantly, are not affecting Luke's brain!

Perhaps it was just my incredible desire for some good news, but I can't stop thinking about that kind man and how certain he seemed that all would be fine for Luke.  I'd like to think it's not just a coincidence that Luke has been doing really well in so many ways since that encounter.  Again, divine intervention or not, I'm going to believe we are on the threshold of a much better second year ahead for sweet Luke!