Andrew's Hope: Keeping up

Monday, March 1, 2010

Keeping up

Andrew is always trying to keep up with Jessica. He loves to spend time around her and she always manages to fascinate him. He seems to thrive on using her hair to help him stand up! Well, his appointments continue. We are still waiting to hear from the endocrinologist. If she has nothing significant to say then we will have to start considering placing a gastric tube, for feeding purposes. What a horrible thing to have to decide!! His father is having an especially hard time with it.

I am a nurse, so although the decision is difficult, I know the benefits it can bring. He needs a chance to grow. The growth plate in his hand says he has plenty of "catching up" to do. He just needs a little help. Every time he does not feel well, the first thing he does is stop eating and drinking. So we will hope that Andrew gets some good news later this week, and if not we will be meeting with the pediatric gastroenterologist for the tube placement. Wish us luck!!

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About Andrew

Andrew is a very handsome wonderful 6 year old boy. He gives us so much joy to have him in our life and, just like any parents, we want to do everything we can to make his life better.

Andrew has bilateral hearing loss and a difficult to control seizure disorder. Andrew also has a visual processing disorder which essentially makes him "blind". While he can visualize objects, he can not process and identify what he is seeing. On top of this, Andrew also has a swallowing disorder which makes it necessary for specialized feeding.

The seizures Andrew has been diagnosed with have also included Infantile Spasms, which is a very serious diagnosis in a child. Due to the severity and frequency of Andrew's seizures, he is termed as "Global Delay" because of the interruption they cause in his daily learning and processing of information. This is despite of being on multiple medications and therapies.

At 3 years of age, Andrew took his first steps. We are still waiting for the day he says his first word. Andrew has come a long ways in the last 3 years. Having Carina enhance her training to include tethering will be wonderful for Andrew. We have fought long and hard to get him walking, including fighting the school when they wanted to put him in a wheelchair. Andrew should be indepdendent as safely possible and noone should ever hold him back.

Carina has improved Andrew's long term quality of life by alerting and providing comfort before, during and after seizures. She can also help to be Andrew's eyes and ears and provide a much needed source of support and comfort to him as he meets the upcoming challenges in his life. We heard about a great organization that places highly trained dogs.

4 Paws for Ability is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children and adults with disabilities. The dogs are specially chosen and trained specific to each individual's needs. Our previous fundraising was on behalf of 4 Paws For Ability in order to minimize the wait time and allow us to participate in the process of placing a dog with Andrew.

Why 4 Paws For Ability?

4 Paws For Ability specializes in training service dogs for children with special needs and has a very high success rate. We encourage you to visit their site at http://www.4pawsforability.org/ to learn more about this wonderful organization. 4 Paws For Ability is a 501(C) Non-Profit Agency and all donations are tax deductible. 4 Paws for Ability's mission is to "Enrich the lives of people with disabilities by the training and placement of service dogs to provide individuals with companionship and promote independent living." and "Assist with animal rescue whenever possible by obtaining many of our animals from shelters and rescue groups." Through a family friend, we heard of another family currently undergoing the training and placement process of a seizure response dog for their 4 year old daughter Caitlin. 4 Paws For Ability is very highly recommended and has placed over 500 service dogs!