Stepping up or down in Wyatt's case

On Sunday March 21, Wyatt fell when stepping down into the garage. I was standing right there in front of him and watched it in slow motion. My body couldn’t move fast enough to catch him. He fell on his left side, his weaker side, the side that takes the most for him to move his leg, the side that his ankle is tighter and as I watched him fall I just knew it was going to be the side he broke his first femur. THANK GOD it was not. He fell pretty hard and screamed A LOT of curse words til we could calm him down. He said, “it just hurts so much mom. Don’t move me Dad. It just hurts.” Wynston and his friend were standing right behind him when it happened and were stunned and not sure what to do to help him or us. Quickly Wynston ran to get some ice for Wyatt and when he returned with the ice pack I looked up and my baby had tears in his eyes. I could tell he was so scared for his brother and as much as it hurts my heart to see tears in either of their eyes, the love they have for one another is truly amazing.

As soon as we could we got Wyatt inside and to check him out. To our relief we realized that he didn’t break anything and that he would probably just be pretty sore and bruised for a few days. Patrick and I were so grateful, it could have been something much worse. Over the next few hours Patrick and I talked while he worked on his truck (that is a story for another day), and we figured out we needed to start looking at things in the house to make it more accessible...we built the house knowing Wyatt had DMD but you quickly learn you don’t know what you don’t know til you need it. We decided that the step in the garage HAS to go and a plan was made to remove cabinets, rip out a door and put in a bigger one and to pour a ramp. We thought about our side door that we knew would be the main entrance when we built the house and had already poured a small ramp but we left the door threshold and that needed to change too. If you know my husband, he stepped up quickly. He always has 100 projects going at a 1 time but when it comes to his family he will take on just one more. All of a sudden he was beating out the thresholds on these doors. And when I say beating it was loud and it was hard...you could tell he was taking out his feelings on these thresholds. I continued to see the wheels turning in his head. I jokingly said we should put in electric doors, that way Wrigley can help Wyatt or maybe Wyatt could use an app to open the doors. Patrick was already thinking about it but he wasn’t joking. He said, “here is the plan. We are going to widen each door and put in electric door openers to make it easy for Wyatt and give him some independence.” I just thought Wow this man is amazing.

A little about Patrick, he is in construction and though sometimes he underestimates the time things will take to be completed I know he will get it done ASAP for Wyatt. Sunday scared us so much and though we know we can’t remove every obstacle we can remove the ones that we can and should so Wyatt will be safe. And so we took that next step.

Later that night after reading to the boys (yep I still read to them, we are on the 5th Harry Potter book), Wyatt asked Wynston if he would sleep in bed with him in case he needed him. Wynston said, “yep I already planned to. Do you need anything right now?” My heart was so full. I then brought Wyatt to the bathroom and went back to tell Wynston what a great little brother he is and he looked at me with tears again and said, “Mom I am so scared, what is going to happen? I don’t want him to stop walking yet.” I hugged him and shared his feelings and explained that we don’t know the future but today is not the day that he is going to stop walking and I thanked him for being there for Wyatt. He smiled and when Wyatt came back in he gave him a huge hug and told Wyatt, “I will be here and get your anything you need.”

As for brothers they fight like cats and dogs A LOT but when it comes down to the times where it means something Wynston always steps up.

So this is the next step in our DMD journey. The first step will be new doors, automatic openers and new ramps. Wyatt and I are so lucky that today Patrick and Wynston really stepped up to help calm Wyatt and my nerves and worries. We continue to be grateful that the fall did not start us down a different path but I know that if it did the 4 of us would be ok because we will always be there for each other on the next step (or ramp) along the way.