Thank you for taking the time out to read about my son. James turned 3 on August 29th and is continuing to grow along side his peers. Soon he will be out growing his car seat and our vehicle. James will be getting a wheel chair soon for school, and that means we need to start looking into getting our family a bigger vehicle, preferably a handicap van. The catch is, we just don't have the funds to buy one. I gave up my full time teaching job to become James nurse, mother, doctor, and best friend.
If you can help... you will forever be in our hearts!
What We Need & What You Get:
We need $40,000 for an already modified wheelchair van with a rear entry ramp. I'll be working with a local company in Chicago, IL to find a van we can afford that will also last a number a years.
25 dollars will get you heartfelt thanks and a shout-out on James and my Facebook pages
50 dollars will get you heartfelt thanks, a shout-out on James and my Facebook pages, and a small Fans of James sticker.
100 and more dollars will get you heartfelt thanks, a shout-out on James and my Facebook pages, and a large Fans of James sticker.
If we don't reach our entire goal, we'll put the money into James medical fund and look into getting a used van.
James Story:
On August 29th, 2009, at 12:30am, James was born via emergency c-section due to lack of movement and the doctors thought maybe he was in distress. The c-section was quick and painless but when James was born, he didn't cry, he only had a two vessel cord, low muscle tone but was shaking his arm. He went one way to the NICU for further examinations & I went the other way to my room.
James spent 2 months in the NICU (8/29/09-10/29/10) and while he was there we found out that he:
- had a stroke during my 1st trimester
- no suck/swallow reflexes; he has a g-tube to eat
- he has a blood clotting disorder called Factor V Leiden;
- his optic nerve in his left eye never fully developed and he is extremely far-sighted
- he has a chromosome disorder called 22q11.2 duplication which means he has an extra copy of a small piece of chromosome 22.
- he has sever reflux and had a surgery called Fundoplication to prevent further reflux
- diagnosed with Infantile Spasms; a catastrophic form of Epilepsy January 2010
- Has been on 10 different anti-seizure meds; nothing has worked so far. One medication cost 75,000, because it was not FDA approved at the time. I had to give James shots in his leg daily for 6 months.
- diagnosed with Quad Cerebral Palsy in September 2010. Which means all 4 limbs are effected.
- James still can not hold his head up, sit, stand, walk, eat by mouth, is always hooked up to a monitor to show us his O2 levels and heart rate. James brain is consistently seizing, and due to the increase of seizures, he needs frequent suctioning.
