Philip has had a lot of ups and downs over the past year, with surgeries, hospital stays, sickness, seizures and more medication changes than we can count. With all of those things (mainly medication changes) he has had a pretty difficult time controlling his attitude on numerous occasions--not to mention he is a 4 year old boy. There have been many times where he has responded somewhat aggressively to Becca and I when he doesn't like something we say or do. At church when he doesn't want to shake hands or say "hi" he will turn away or make it very obvious he doesn't want to acknowledge a person by his body language. We have worked many times with him on making his voice kind. When Joyanna tries to give him a kiss he usually tries to push her away, etc. We have kinda accepted it as a part of where he is right now; though we hate the fact that the medications have some of those side affects, and daily work with him on controlling his attitude even when he doesn't feel like it; it is an ongoing battle.
This past week has been no different; as we have begun the process of weaning him off one of his medications, the attitude and 'melt-downs' have been as bad as we have ever seen them. If you think of a drug addict in rehab in a padded room coming off of whatever drug they are addicted to--essentially that is what is happening to Philip as we wean him off a medication--only in a 4 year old's body. We can control him, because we are bigger and stronger, but the same physiological changes are taking place, which is why the attitude issues are coming up. After my last post, someone asked us to be very specific in how they can pray for us and Philip. At least for these few weeks, this is an area that Philip specifically needs prayer.
Here is an interesting observation I had a month or two ago: Everyone who interacts with Philip from time to time feels the brunt of him being unkind and upset at them--with one exception. We are not sure why, but in both Becca's and my recollection, Philip is always happy and excited to see his Uncle Drew. Not that Drew hasn't seen his bad side, but his interactions directly with Uncle Drew are always positive and pleasant. If he is sad, mad, melting down, etc., we can mention that "Uncle Drew is coming over" or "we'll see Uncle Drew at church later" and his demeanor instantaneously changes. The couple of pictures I added from yesterday with Philip happy are because Uncle Drew is playing with him--not long before those pictures were taken, Philip was laying on his bed, a 'basket-case'. We aren't sure why that special connection with Uncle Drew, but we are thankful for it, and thankful for the many times that Uncle Drew and Aunt Abby have spent time with us and Philip.
The story for the next post is that Philip starts school tomorrow. Becca will have more to say about that in a post, sometime over the next few days.