Isaiah's Life After Brain Surgery
Donation protected
Our new life with our little boy started out as any new parents would hope and expect. With a healthy beautiful baby. As the months went buy we enjoyed watching our little Isaiah grow, laugh and play. He was always so happy and always managed to brightend up anyones day, truly a little angel. Isaiah was meeting all his milestones and we left every checkup feeling like everything was well and that Isaiah was on track and healthy. Isaiah seemed to be developing into a "lefty" until about 7 months when we noticed he had started using his right hand more...something that we didnt really find concerning. Jump forward to 11 months, Isaiah was then doing his best to walk around and oh how we loved watching him move! Strangly enough around this time we noticed some weakness on his left side especially his left hand, he was having a hard time holding on to things. We didn't jump to conclusions since despite that he never showed any signs of pain or discomfort and continued to be just the happiest baby ever.
[April 2016]
A year came and went and at his one year check up I mentioned to his pediatrician the leftsided weakness. After observation she decided it would be a good idea to have him get an MRI. It was scheduled for May 19th, 2016. I will never forget that day...It changed our lives forever and to this day I still tear up thinking about it. After Isaiah recovered from the anesthesia we went home making plans for lunch hoping everything would show up ok. We were home not even 5mins when I got a call from Isaiah's pediatrician. "He has a tumor, you NEED to go back to the hospital..." I couldn't process the info. I think a couple tears ran down my face and then I blocked the info momentarily. That same day we were transferred to McLanes Children Hospital in Temple, TX. We met so many people that day and received so much info that we didn't know what to do with or how to process. 4 days later Isaiah had his first major brain surgery. Everything happened so quickly that we pretty much just went with the flow of things and just prayed everything would be ok. To our relief surgery went well and the surgeons let us know that although they had not removed the tumor completely they did manage to get the majority of it out. We spent close to a month in the hospital while Isaiah recovered. Isaiah was diagnosed with having a polymixoid astrocytoma grade 2 tumor. the surgery was kind of a reboot for Isaiah and he now had to relearn everything. Another month went by while Isaiah did inpatient rehab in Dallas at Our Children's House. 6 months post op Isaiah seemed to be doing amazing with his recovery and had even started walking again and saying a couple words.
[Our Children's House Rehab Center July 2016]
That November in 2016 however, things took a turn for the worst and he started having seizures. Fast foward and we are now sitting back again in the very hospital were he had his first surgery now discussing a second surgery. The tumor had grown and in hopes that the seizures would stop we went ahead with his second major brain surgery to remove as much of the remainig tumor. This time around was a bit different. Not only did his little body get "rebooted" again but it seemed like during surgery cranial nerve 3 was damaged. This nerve controlls his ability to open his eyelids, the muscle function of his eyes and the dilation of his pupils. I think this was definitly one of the most devistating outcomes for me as a mother, not to be able to look into my sons beautiful eyes...it's the little things we take for granted. We were in the hospital for a month before they transfered us to the inpatient rehab prpogram at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. This time around was taking longer (has taken longer) for him to recover from surgery so they sent us home because he wasn't "doing enough" for him to benefit from inpatient therapy. But after spending Thanksgiving and Christmas in a hospital room we were glad to go home.
[McLanes Hospital Dec. 2016]
Currently Isaiah's week is filled with all kinds of outpatient therapy: physical,occupational, speech, vision and orientation and mobility. We have been lucky enough that his insurance has covered these services alogn with a wheelchair device and just recently his walker (which him and I are very excited about!). He will continue having MRI's done for the rest of his life to monitor the tumor. Good news is his tumor has remaind stable since Febuary 2017 and I pray everyday that it remains that way. He continues to have seizurelike activity but he is taking seizure medications that have kept them under control. We are also considering two more surgeries to correct the issue with his eyes sometime this year 2018. They could both be done at the same time but one would be to open his eyelids and the second surgery to fix the muscles in his eyes.
[Jan. 2018]
Ok so now to the point of why we need your help. After Isaiah's first surgery things were so up in the air with his situation I decided to leave my job, I felt like my employer needed someone reliable and with everything going on I knew I couldn't give them that. Things were ok for a while because I had a good amount of money saved up after working there for several years but now sadly that money has run out and his dad doesn't make enough for us to keep up with expenses as well as paying all these hospital bills we have acquired in such a short amount of time. I don't enjoy the fact that I cannot pay for these hospital bills and I wish that I could but with all this going on Isaiah has been my priority. I haven't gone back to work because the type of care he needs is not offered in a daycare and I simply wouldn't feel comfortable hiring someone to take care of him at home and give him the attention he needs.
Paying off these hospital bills would take a huge weight off our sholders and I would forever be greatful to anybody that is willing to help us no matter how small your donation. Even if you can not donate and you have taken the time to read through our story, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as we still have a long journey ahead of us while he continues to recover.
Isaiah, his dad and I thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
[Jan. 2018]
[April 2016]A year came and went and at his one year check up I mentioned to his pediatrician the leftsided weakness. After observation she decided it would be a good idea to have him get an MRI. It was scheduled for May 19th, 2016. I will never forget that day...It changed our lives forever and to this day I still tear up thinking about it. After Isaiah recovered from the anesthesia we went home making plans for lunch hoping everything would show up ok. We were home not even 5mins when I got a call from Isaiah's pediatrician. "He has a tumor, you NEED to go back to the hospital..." I couldn't process the info. I think a couple tears ran down my face and then I blocked the info momentarily. That same day we were transferred to McLanes Children Hospital in Temple, TX. We met so many people that day and received so much info that we didn't know what to do with or how to process. 4 days later Isaiah had his first major brain surgery. Everything happened so quickly that we pretty much just went with the flow of things and just prayed everything would be ok. To our relief surgery went well and the surgeons let us know that although they had not removed the tumor completely they did manage to get the majority of it out. We spent close to a month in the hospital while Isaiah recovered. Isaiah was diagnosed with having a polymixoid astrocytoma grade 2 tumor. the surgery was kind of a reboot for Isaiah and he now had to relearn everything. Another month went by while Isaiah did inpatient rehab in Dallas at Our Children's House. 6 months post op Isaiah seemed to be doing amazing with his recovery and had even started walking again and saying a couple words.
[Our Children's House Rehab Center July 2016]
That November in 2016 however, things took a turn for the worst and he started having seizures. Fast foward and we are now sitting back again in the very hospital were he had his first surgery now discussing a second surgery. The tumor had grown and in hopes that the seizures would stop we went ahead with his second major brain surgery to remove as much of the remainig tumor. This time around was a bit different. Not only did his little body get "rebooted" again but it seemed like during surgery cranial nerve 3 was damaged. This nerve controlls his ability to open his eyelids, the muscle function of his eyes and the dilation of his pupils. I think this was definitly one of the most devistating outcomes for me as a mother, not to be able to look into my sons beautiful eyes...it's the little things we take for granted. We were in the hospital for a month before they transfered us to the inpatient rehab prpogram at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. This time around was taking longer (has taken longer) for him to recover from surgery so they sent us home because he wasn't "doing enough" for him to benefit from inpatient therapy. But after spending Thanksgiving and Christmas in a hospital room we were glad to go home.
[McLanes Hospital Dec. 2016]Currently Isaiah's week is filled with all kinds of outpatient therapy: physical,occupational, speech, vision and orientation and mobility. We have been lucky enough that his insurance has covered these services alogn with a wheelchair device and just recently his walker (which him and I are very excited about!). He will continue having MRI's done for the rest of his life to monitor the tumor. Good news is his tumor has remaind stable since Febuary 2017 and I pray everyday that it remains that way. He continues to have seizurelike activity but he is taking seizure medications that have kept them under control. We are also considering two more surgeries to correct the issue with his eyes sometime this year 2018. They could both be done at the same time but one would be to open his eyelids and the second surgery to fix the muscles in his eyes.
[Jan. 2018]
Ok so now to the point of why we need your help. After Isaiah's first surgery things were so up in the air with his situation I decided to leave my job, I felt like my employer needed someone reliable and with everything going on I knew I couldn't give them that. Things were ok for a while because I had a good amount of money saved up after working there for several years but now sadly that money has run out and his dad doesn't make enough for us to keep up with expenses as well as paying all these hospital bills we have acquired in such a short amount of time. I don't enjoy the fact that I cannot pay for these hospital bills and I wish that I could but with all this going on Isaiah has been my priority. I haven't gone back to work because the type of care he needs is not offered in a daycare and I simply wouldn't feel comfortable hiring someone to take care of him at home and give him the attention he needs.
Paying off these hospital bills would take a huge weight off our sholders and I would forever be greatful to anybody that is willing to help us no matter how small your donation. Even if you can not donate and you have taken the time to read through our story, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as we still have a long journey ahead of us while he continues to recover.
Isaiah, his dad and I thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
[Jan. 2018]
Organizer and beneficiary
Rosa Godinez
Organizer
Bryan, TX
Cody Deleon
Beneficiary
