Andrew's Hope: Making the good Great and the Bad better

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Making the good Great and the Bad better

Each day comes and goes, and you take the good and make it the best you can, and try to take the 'not-so-good' and turn it into something better. Andrew continues to progress, and his AFO's have now been made into SMO's. Instead of the brace stopping below his knee they cut it down to just above his ankle. This is awesome news for Andrew! He is getting stronger and his balance while walking alone improves each day. Andrew will be 3 soon and with that comes many unwanted changes. Unwanted by me, not Andrew. He will be transitioning to the school district and I will be losing two of the people who have helped me with Andrew since he was only a few months old. This transition is a hard one for Andrew because he now recognizes Michelle and Jan. I think it is the hardest on me. I have come to rely on their advice and friendship. I know Andrew will continue to succeed and progress, but these people will miss out on all of his new gains. I have Alyssa, Shannon and Sara that I get to "keep" and for that I am grateful. So my worry lies with my Dad and his ongoing medical condition. I have hope that one of these days we will find out why he is still coughing and not able to eat. So as I run theories through my head none are what he has. He is now waiting for his blood to thicken so they can do an EGD. We are in hopes that tomorrow he will be able to have the EGD done. I ask that everyone who reads this blog keep my Dad in their thoughts and prayers. Mother's Day will be here soon and I want to be sure my Mom knows how much I love her and how much I believe in her!!

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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!