dsummersill

Sue, My prayers are with you and Ray!!!! Im sorry he is having so many troubles.....You definetly deserve a break from all your worries. GOD BLESS Dyan

I had a parent teacher conference for Cayden and his Speech Therapist told me he was doing so good with his IEP goals for speech that she was going to drop him from 4 times a week to 2 times a week!!!! He is also dressing himself now all by himself and today was able to actually put his own socks on!!!! He usually needed help to put his toes into his socks but then could pull up his socks. When his Social worker came over he went and showed her and all of us that he could put on his own socks even the putting the toes in his socks!!!! Hurray Cayden!!!!! Milestone Complete!!!! Dyan

I am trying to get ahold of OCC and Paul Jr Designs to have them build a chopper for Stroke awareness not just for my son but for all pediatric and adult stroke survivors. If anyone knows of an association who will be willing to help me out I would greatly appreciate all help. I know too many people who have had a stroke and too little people who understand those who have had one. Just because a person cant see the damage caused by a stroke doesnt mean that we are "fine". All stroke survivors are special and need understanding and support like anyone else with a well known disease. Cancer is now well known and people are supporting them so now its time that stroke is made aware and something be done about it. thankyou for all the support and all you stroke survivors God Bless and my prayers are with you!!!! Dyan

Lisa I havent had a stroke but my son had one before he was born and I too would have dreams of him being able bodied and I used to be so scared when he was still in the NICU that I would get a call saying that he was no longer with us. I have finally come to realize that no matter what he can or cant do he is still very special and Lisa you too are special to your loved ones. Keep recovering and God Bless Dyan

Hi Fred, I couldnt really tell ya if he is the youngest spoken here but he is pretty young. The doctor didnt believe he would live because he died on us 4 times that night and they didnt know if they could have him come back if he died again. They realized that he was dying because he was having seizures and the doctor really didnt want us to get our hopes up too much. After he got out of the NICU on his actual due date March 3, 2007 the doctor said that he had seen worse brain damage than Cayden has and they didnt show any ill effects from it and no one could tell they were brain damaged. Cayden doesnt show too much ill effects from his strokes except the partial paralysis of his right side and him being developmentally delayed. I really need to get a video on here to show how he runs it is so darn cute. But the more he does it the better I know he will get. I noticed that the doctors werent wrong when they said that kids are resilient when it comes to strokes and how they recover. My prayers will be with you that you will continue to recover like my Cayden is...... Dyan

Hi Yolanda, I know what ya mean. We never heard about strokes in infants until Cayden had his. Of course we didnt know he had one until he died on us 20 min. after he was born. They put him on two different antiseizure drugs and two days after he was born they did his first MRI. He has been seizure free now for over a year now and off his meds. He is of course so far as they can tell only 2 yrs developmentally delayed so we are now dealing with the terrible twos. He no longer is in OT, or PT tho he still has partial paralysis in his right side but nothing they can fix with PT. On top of all this he sees a chiropractor every month. In fact the chiropractor has done wonders for him. He walks with out a limp now and he started using his right hand more and can actually use it to throw a ball. We work with him at home but I dont know if he will ever gain full use of the right side. People are actually surprised when they see Cayden that anything is really wrong with him he looks so normal and that really irritates me because they think he can do things others can and it causes him to get hurt. I dont know how many times my inlaws have choked him by giving him food he couldnt eat. The Nuerologist is afraid that Cayden will have another one here shortly but his chiropractor thinks hes safe now that he has been adjusted. But the one thing that really scares me is that he will end up with epilepsy. The seizures he used to suffer scared the day lights out of me....He would turn blue within seconds!!!! Dyan

Hi Leah, Im new to this site but my prayers are with you and your hubby Jerry. I am so sorry to hear that you are having a bumpy road in life. I know the Lord is definetly there for you and Jerry. I am not going through such a hard road but my son was in utero when he had his stroke and its rough some days to be able to do everything that needs to be done with him and his sister is also special needs but she has shaken baby syndrome. Keep strong in the Lord and he will show you the way. Prayers from Dyan

Thank you Asha, He is a fighter!!! Today he showed us for the first time that he actually knows how to undress himself and dress himself!!!!! We knew he could do his pants but I had no idea that he could do his shirt. We are trying to get a special tool so he can button up his shirts and the other night he showed me he could snap is clothes that had snaps on them. These milestones he has hit pretty much on target but his walking and the infant milestones took him longer to achieve.

Cayden is a 4 yr old stroke survivor who had a stroke at 37 wks gestation. They didnt know he had had a stroke until 3 days later when they did a MRI on his brain because he started seizing right after birth. When they did the MRI they saw the the stroke killed 20% of his left brain and damaged about 20% of his middle brain. He is doing much more than they expected when he was first born. They said that he wouldnt survive the first night much less live a normal life. He is talking, eating, and running.