When Ivy has the infusion of Intragam, she usually has a couple of days where she feels pretty ordinary afterwards.
Generally achy after a night of sweats and high temps.
After that, though, she gets an unmistakable boost in her energy. A period of time when she is just a normal preschooler, doing what all preschoolers do. She runs and jumps and dances. She plays hard. She laughs and sings and draws.
This lasts about three weeks and then we enter what we have come to know as…
The Meltdown Week.
We are in that very week right now.
Her energy levels fall, she eats less and sleeps more
and there are lots and lots of tears.
Lots of them.
The kids all sigh and huff and roll their eyes while I carry around the meltdown girl but we all know that it’s only for a week.
I mean, a week of sad beats a month of sad any day, doesn’t it?
Before the infusions started Ivy would cry all day, almost every day and when she wasn’t crying or clinging she was sleeping or lying on the lounge, still as could be.
It was sad and terrible and heart wrenching and it turned our lives upside down.
So what’s a little meltdown as her antibody levels decline?
For me, it is a reminder of what once was, what could be, if we didn’t have the IVIG.
For me, the meltdown week keeps it real.