| Wyatt
Wyatt was born in
March 1998. The
first thing the
Doctors noticed was
the Hypospadius
which didn't seem
like an uncommon
thing, but by the
second day of life
with no stool and
his stomach
distended they
diagnosed
Hirschprungs. After
a couple of
operations and many
sleepless nights at
the hospital , we
thought all would be
well. But of course
this is not the end
of the story as you
all probably
experienced. Wyatt
was diagnosed with
Cerebral Palsy at 1
1/2 yrs.
With all this the
doctors said he has
a medical syndrome,
but it was not
identifiable. He
started with
seizures at four
years of age, and
when he was 5, he
got a baby sister!
Wyatt was 6 years
old when the doctors
finally put together
the pieces of the
puzzle and gave us
the Mowat-Wilson
Syndrome name.
Wyatt is now 8
years old, still in
diapers but having a
heck of a good time!
He absolutely
loves the water so
we keep him in
swimming lessons a
good amount of the
time. He loves his
dog, Lexie, his
sister, Vivienne,
and all his cousins
and grandparents and
friends. We know
this is a long road,
but we know God has
given us Wyatt for a
reason. We plan to
try to take each day
and enjoy our kids.
Update: January 2009
Over the last year we have seen some really
significant changes in Wyatt. He is using a picture book to indicate his
food choices-they seem to consist of mostly pizza and burritos-but that's
normal for a kid in southern California.
We are having good luck with his cecostomy tube--put
in almost two years ago to eliminate the use of laxatives- It allows me to
administer an enema each morning into the tube and then he sits on the potty
for about forty minutes until everything is cleared out. We use a portable
DVD player to keep him occupied-thank God for those!! Obviously, we can
never be in a real hurry in the morning.
He rides the bus to and from school everyday and his
teacher takes the class on regular field trips to the movies and restaurants
and plays-she is great with the kids. During the fall and spring, they swim
once a week at the local pool with quite a few other special ed. classes
from neighbouring schools. Wyatt has been able to tread water for a few
seconds. He needs someone assisting him in the pool at all times because
they let him swim in the deep end. He usually hangs onto a flotation
"noodle", but every once in a while he likes to let go of it.
This past December we finally decided we could take
the family on a 3-day vacation to Arizona to see Santa on the Polar Express.
We were concerned Wyatt might be too loud to stay in the hotels but we were
wrong. He was so thrilled with everything-especially the train ride to the
North Pole where Santa came on and presented each child with a sleigh bell!
It was magical! Since the cecostomy, it has made life a lot easer because we
are not changing so many soiled diapers. Before, I would have worried about
where am I going to change this ten year old child's diaper-but now, we are
using pull-ups to work on potty training him. We just have to stay on
schedule, taking him to the bathroom every few hours. Sometimes we do pretty
good and other days we miss the moment-but with the laxatives he was on
before this kind of trip would be very difficult.
Wyatt received a Leapster game for Christmas and he
loves it. We just put it in a plastic ziploc bag to prevent his drool from
ruining it-it works pretty well. He loves that the screen responds to his
touch. I'm not sure he understands the games but he is really into this toy!
He still loves to tease his little sister,
Vivienne, but she deals with it and many times she is his best friend,
making him laugh and getting us through the store when Wyatt is not
interested in behaving. Other times she just hits him back-oh well, that's
life!!
Written by mum,
Julie Campbell. |
