Day 3 of the streak - it was a tough run his evening....Baxter the Dog struggled too. But, I'm proud to say, we got the run in and I feel good about it. Baxter is now fast asleep on the couch next to me...I'm quickly fading. Noah had a great day - Tuesdays are at home with Mommy and he loves it...I usually get jealous that Susan gets to spend the whole day with my hero, Noah Walker. Noah had Sandy the physical therapist from Early Intervention over today - she works with him at the house for an hour every Tuesday. We think he has realized that she makes him do things he doesn't want to do - he gets a look on his face when she walks through the door that tells us he knows exactly whats going on and that he doesn't necessarily like it. But, as always, he rebounds quickly and is all smiles at the end of his session.
As I'm quickly running out of usable Old School quotes about "Going streaking!" - I thought I'd use this one - Through the Quad - to share a few things.
Four things we know:
1. Noah had a stroke that was caused by a blood clot that blocked an artery, cutting off the oxygen supply to a portion of the left side of his brain. This particularly section controls motor skills on the right side of the body and is also responsible for speech.
2. There was nothing anyone could have done that would have changed this - it was truly a case of bad luck - it occurs in 1 in 4,000 births. A clot the size of a grain of sand likely made its way from the placenta, through the umbilical cord, pressed on through his heart and took a wrong turn into his brain.
3. Noah has gone through extensive tests at Children's Hospital and we are relieved to be able to say that he is in otherwise perfect health. His heart is perfect, as is his blood (two potential causes of the stroke that have been ruled out). So, he is at no greater risk than you or I to have another stroke later in life. The damage that was done is just that - done...it is not progressive and we can move forward, working to get him better.
4. He is an unbelievable little boy with the happiest demeanor I've ever seen, a smile that is almost always present and will melt your heart, the determination of his mother and the kind of personality - even at just 7 months of age - that you want to be around.
Four things we don't know:
1. Exactly why this happened...we seemingly never will. As I mentioned, it was a fluke, but we won't know exactly what caused the clot. In this case - it is better not to know as the alternative would likely mean worse things.
2. How this will impact Noah long term. The range of results for children with pediatric stroke is very wide. It will always be with him. He will likely be delayed with his speech and may always have some trouble expressing his thoughts. He will likely be delayed walking and, when he does start (I don't like to say "if") he will likely need a brace and he may ultimately walk with an uneven stride. He will likely have a significant delay with his fine motor skills with his right hand and may have trouble there long term too. But, bottom line, we don't know.
3. How we are going to deal with this...right now the situation is quite overwhelming. Some days we want people to tell us everything is going to be okay; others we want people to offer quiet words of sympathy. Fortunately, we have a great group of friends, family, doctors and other professionals to help us every step of the way.
4. What the best course of action is. There is no road map for this. We read a lot, we talk to as many people as possible and we try to focus every possible minute of every day on helping Noah to get better. There is no right answer - all we can do is take each day as it comes and change our route if and when we need to. For now, we're going streaking through the quad...and then into the gymnasium.
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