Quote:
Originally Posted by xrayagent
Nyororin,
What sorts of problems does your child have? I ask from proffessional curiosity; I am a special education teacher, and many of my students have congenital problems, though others seem to have problems stemming from their environment.
When I was on a train in Japan last year, I saw a person with a congenital condition. I found it odd that on his backpack he had a sign that was a sort of warning to others about him. I almost snapped a picture of it, but I thouhght that it would have been terriblely rude, since I couldn't ask permission first.
|
I don`t mind talking about it at all, but I thank you for asking about it so politely.
My son had a severe left hemispherical stroke just prior to birth due to my placenta quite literally dying. He was receiving just enough oxygen to survive, but waste was not being carried out. He was born weighing 14 oz, and was in intensive care for 5 months. His genitalia were also not developed (in fact, we had to have a blood test to determine gender.)
He has a growth disorder, and a malfunction in the sleep-wake center of his brain - his body doesn`t register fatigue properly so doesn`t produce a proper balance of sleep hormones. He has an enlarged heart, and hardened lungs.
The stroke destroyed around half of the brain tissue in the left hemisphere, so he has a big "hole" there now.
That`s about it.
As for developmental levels, he is about the size of an 18 month old and behaves like a 24 month old... He is going to turn 3 next month. The biggest bottleneck right now is that he has no speech. Not a single word. He is very vocal, very expressive, and has decent comprehension, just no real words. If he were to begin speaking, our doctor believes he may actually be closer to a normal level than we think - there is a point where the tests require verbal skills. He fails them miserably (of course!).
Nothing congenital here - just bad luck, I suppose. Or good, if you look at it from the other side. We were told to expect him to be dead at birth. He wasn`t. We were then told to expect him to die. He didn`t. Later when he was finally able to leave the hospital, we were told to expect seizures and cerebral palsy. He has neither.