Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Meet Harvey


Two weeks after getting the news that my son would need to start wearing a back brace, and one week after being casted for it, and $2,500 later, we finally got it. The instructions were to start wearing it at night, while sleeping, to get used to it.

Like sleeping in a two foot piece of plastic cinched on you like a girdle is going to get you used to it.

Further instructions were to care for the brace like we would our son. For example, if we wouldn't leave our son in a hot car, then we shouldn't leave the brace in a hot car either. We made our way home and I dropped my son off to hang out with friends. I put the brace in the front seat, so as to care for it like a son, and I continued to run various errands around town. At the end of the day, I had nicknamed the brace. He was, after all, going to be part of the family for the next six years and I was going to be caring for him like a son. I call him Harvey, after the film of the same name starring Jimmy Stewart. In the film, Harvey is an invisible white rabbit. I felt like the name fit since Harvey is not real, but will be a very real part of our life.

My son is a champ. He has been wearing the brace full time now for two weeks and I've not heard a complaint from him - except when his skin got pinched and he yelled "Harvey bit me!" I guess my next task is negotiating sibling rivalry.

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