OK. So what am I thankful for? I’m thankful that what we do, the products we create, and the goals we set for ourselves
achilles3allow us the privilege to help real families make discoveries, play, smile and sometimes just get through the day. Remember Achilles? I blogged about him in
December 2007. He was 6 months old then, and as now, battling with andwinning in his fight against his congenital heart defect. According to his mom, Ali, our Thanksgiving guest blogger, eebee made a profound difference in their lives. We recently caught up, and it appears that eebee continues to play a meaningful role in this family’s life. I asked Ali to share her update with us…. (thanks, Ali! And thanks to all of the families who on a daily basis help us to spread the word about eebee simply by telling their stories!) Happy Thanksgiving.
Stephen
Chille, eebee & me
by Ali Bergstrom (Chille & eebee’s mom)
I joke that Eebee has one helluva passport. You see, Eebee has been
everywhere my son has been since he was only 4 months old. My son,
Chille, is now 2.5 years, so how far can THAT be? Quite far, actually…
Chille&eebee on the roadEarly on, Chille’s home became wherever we were. One day that could mean our apartment in East Harlem in New York City and another day it could be the Intensive Care Unit at the local Children’s Hospital.
My son was born with a congenital heart defect. While heart defects are the most common birth defect in the world, affecting more children in the US than AIDS, Cancer and Autism COMBINED, only 50% of all diagnoses are made when the child is alive. I knew when I was 20 weeks pregnant that my son would need open heart surgery to save his life. I had a while to prepare for it, but what caught me off guard entirely was living in the ICU for months at a time with a little baby that needed to be entertained and distracted from painful procedures. Enter Eebee…
I know that there is a lot of controversy about young children and
television. I don’t know if it makes my son smarter, although he does
speak English, Mandarin and Arabic and knew all his letters and numbers by
age 2. But what I do know is that with a young 6 month old baby who is
lying on his back all day in a busy ICU with 24 hour lights and sounds,
watching television is pretty much the only alternative after a mother has
lost her voice from reading and singing all day to her infant son. So
that’s what we did. We watched DVDs. For hours upon hours every day for
months at a time, Chille watched Eebee gurgle and giggle, move about and
explore. Eebee was there when Chille endured his second open heart
surgery at 6 months and Eebee was there when he had a pacemaker implanted
to keep my son alive. Eebee had hospital wrist bands and was covered with
heart monitor stickers and doctors always listened to Eebee’s heart before
the stethoscope ever reached my son. With all the back and forth between
hospital and home, one thing remained constant: Eebee.
Eebee was just like my son. He had two eyes and a nose and hair you could
grab. When things were looking up for us and we went home for an extended
period, the physical and occupational therapists that entered my home
twice a day, 5 days a week used Eebee to demonstrate to my son how to roll
over and how to sit up. My son would use all his effort just to be like
Eebee.
So when Chille and I had to pack up and move half-way around the globe for
a year, guess who went with us to Australia? No matter where my son
traveled, there was Eebee. Eebee has been on more airplanes than I can
count! It is difficult to provide the consistency of environment that
children crave. And yet, by carrying Eebee’s DVDs in my handbag and
popping it in everywhere we go, the decor is always the same. Bright,
smiling people surrounding Eebee. And Chille began to look at his
environment like that, as well. The nurses were bright and smiling, the
flight attendants bright and smiling. Eebee taught me that simple cups of
water can be valuable playthings to use during a layover in an airport or
while waiting for test results at the hospital. Paper streamers that I
once thought were reserved for birthday parties became the norm in every
room we’ve ever stayed in. Balls of every shape and size and a hamper of
laundry can be found anywhere. Eebee gave a tired and scared mom the
ingredients for adventure. Eebee gave my little boy a family and a home,
no matter where we were in the world.
Although my son now enjoys more friends and experiences out of the home,
Eebee still remains. And I admit that every evening, as I kiss my son
goodnight and turn off the lights, I give Eebee a little peck on his
orange head and wish them both peaceful dreams and awesome adventures.
Ali Bergstrom is an athlete, musician and writer who lives in NYC with her
son, Chille. Follow along as Chille experiences just another ordinary day
in an extraordinary city. www.extraordinarycity.com