The Other Side of Vignesh

Vignesh started his PT and OT classes when he was about a month old. But, every time there was some health issue that prevented him from attending the therapy regularly. After all the obstacles, we started his therapy about two weeks back. This time we are determined to take him regularly to his sessions. As usual, this time too, within 2 days he developed some sort of stomach infection. But, we did not want to give up this time. We gave him just enough time to recover and after 2-3 days we again started with his therapy classes.

My son has always been a strict disciplinarian. He goes about his work without complaining. Whether it is bathing time or sleep time, he is happy to follow his schedule. Touchwood, he is always happy and its very rare to see him cry. Sometimes, it makes me think that my son is more responsible and matured than even me. There are times when he was on ventilator and in pain and all that he let out was silent tears. That would melt my heart away. Only occasionally did he cry and that too for valid reasons. Even today morning, when I woke up, I saw him play by himself with his toys on the bed, instead of crying or trying to wake me up. He makes me so proud of him.

But, in the past two weeks, I'm getting to see the other side of my son.

He refuses to do PT. It is normal for children to cry during PT sessions. But, this guy goes beyond that and cries until he turns red from coughing. He closes his eyes tightly shut and would not open them as long as the therapists are near him, no matter how much we try to console him. He makes his body stiff so that we cannot try to make him do therapy. And, no matter how active he was before the session, he would doze off after crying. We have attempted a lot of strategies. But, Vignesh just outsmarts us. Today, he was crying so much during the session and dozed off. But, the moment we came home and I lay him on the bed he began to smile and played all afternoon.

It really makes thing difficult and makes me angry. I'm not sure how we are going to make him do PT. But, in some corner of my heart, I enjoyed seeing the childish persistence in my son. A new Vignesh - completely different from the more matured person that he normally is. Although, I wish he continues to be a disciplined person most of the times (and esp during his therapy sessions), I would still be eagerly waiting for the naughty person in him to show up once in a while.