Donate to Jameson's Speech Therapy Fund

I'm setting up this Go-Fund-Me on behalf of my friend Randall Jette, I asked him to tell me his story in full, with no details left out so that everyone can get the full picture and the urgency of the situation. I have my own child in speech therapy and any parent who has undergone this situation understands the value in ensuring they have the best possible shot at a normal life and without it, they could regress or end up delayed to the point that they can't function in normal society. All I ask is a moment of your time to consider this family and ANY donation helps at all funds will be used to cover the speech therapy bills and restart therapy for Jameson. The burden feels insurmountable to them but together we can make REAL change and help a child find their voice. Thank you. -Saskia.

Okay, so this goes way back. I need to start from the beginning practically. Jameson was born in March of 2020. This was right as COVID was hitting and was a real mess. He came out at 5lbs 13oz and 19 inches long. The umbilical cord was wrapped twice around his neck, the same that happened to me and my older sister when we were born. But he recovered from that quickly and got blood flowing. The pregnancy had been rough on Kat. She was sick the entire time and developed gestational diabetes. I don't know if that had anything to do with what happened next, but she wasn't able to produce enough milk, and Jameson had difficulty latching. After a couple of days, we had to give up and switch to bottle feeding him formula. A lot of people bottle feed their babies, so it's not like that was an insurmountable problem. It was just one more expense. After a few months, Jameson started going to daycare. Everything seemed fine, until about 14 months. Once he reached that age, he started having issues. He wouldn't respond to people. The daycare workers started suspecting that something was up, so we had to take him to multiple doctor's appointments beyond just the normal number of extra visits for his being underweight. That's when we discovered that he had malformed Eustachian tubes in his ears and needed to get tubes put in. At this same time, Kat also needed tubes put into her ears, as her tubes close up every couple of years and cause multiple ear infections. So, more medical bills. We thought that everything would be fine at this point.

A few months go by, and his hearing is perfect. But now he's getting picky about his food and still isn't listening to people. He's not babbling or copying sounds. He's fallen behind every "goal" for infants. He is about 18 months old, and Kat thinks he might be autistic. I don't think this is true, because he's so energetic and extroverted when I'm around. I argued that he is just shy, and only comes out of his shell when the person he feels safest with is there. So, more doctor's appointments to find out what's going on with him. Our family pediatrician doesn't think that there's anything wrong with his development, that he's just a little behind the curve. He says that I'm right, that Jameson is not displaying the signs of autism, due to how social he is. He's so happy, and curious, loves exploring new environments. Kat takes him to specialist's offices while I'm at work and can't get away, though. When I'm not there, he's withdrawn and doesn't explore, doesn't play with the toys in the strange rooms he's taken to. I actually thought that this proved my point, that he was shy because I wasn't there. At around this point, Kat's father gets news that he has a tumor in his lungs. They do a biopsy, and it's malignant. After checking his body, it's already spread. So, we go in for genetic testing, and Kat's father dies from lung cancer in almost exactly 6 months. Just after this, we get the genetic test results that confirm the presence of a genetic mutation of the ANK2 gene. This gene is associated with autism, and also with random full cardiac failure. So, in addition to needing to get Jameson more assistance to help him develop, I need to go to the cardiologist in order to get my heart looked at.

I ended up getting an EKG, an MRI, and a heart monitor that was attached to me 24 hours a day for a week. Each appointment cost more and more. We had just moved jobs, hoping that we'd be able to make enough to afford the new daycare that we were sending him to, one that was specifically for special needs children. Then, Kat's car broke down. Her transmission died. We didn't have the money to repair it, but we still owed $8k on it. The car dealership was willing to roll the excess owed into the loan, but that meant an even higher monthly payment. Jameson was doing really well undergoing speech and occupational therapy. It soon turned out that we were only going to be able to afford one or the other. Since physically he was developing much better, we decided to stick with speech therapy. We were falling behind on payments, but the school assured us that as long as we were paying what we could, we would be able to continue sending him. A lot of minor but expensive things happened during these months. Both of our dogs died within weeks of each other. My bad knee started acting up again, and I needed to see the orthopedic surgeon who had worked with me before Jameson was born. And then, in February of this year, I got news that my Nana was coming to the end of her life. We took out a small loan to afford the plane tickets and the car rental. And, I went out with Kat and Jameson to say goodbye and let her meet her great grandson for once before passing. It was a very difficult time, but I got to see her, and she got to meet Jameson. She died almost exactly two weeks after we got home.

So, it's not that any one major thing popped up to screw us over. It's been a death of a thousand cuts. Doctor's bills. Flat tires. Emergencies that had to take priority. We paid as much as we could every month, but those sessions were expensive. So, every month more and more were added to the debt, until we are where we are now. And the amount finally got so high that they stopped accepting "we gave everything that we could" and had to say we owed them too much to continue the service. And I get it. We owe them so much. I didn't even believe it at first when Kat told me how much we owed. We're still paying them as much as we can, trying to bring down the amount we owe so that one day we can possibly start the therapy, again. Honestly, I just want to be able to talk to my son. He's still such a happy, beautiful little boy. And I want him to hear how much I love him. I leave for work at 1:30pm, and don't get home until around midnight. I get up at 5:30am to get him ready for daycare and feed our current dogs, then get back to bed around 7:00 to 7:30am, and get back up around 10:30am. That gives me about 3 hours to be able to get household chores done or run any errands that have to be done. Maybe I could miss out on more sleep and get a part time job during the morning. But what kind of life would that be? Either I'd be exhausted all the time, or I wouldn't get the small amount of time with Jameson that I do get during the week.

Maybe nobody you know would be willing to donate to help me. And I will be okay with that. I don't expect anything from this anyway, right now. It did feel a little cathartic to write all this out, remind myself of all the trials that we have faced over the past few years and how we've overcome them. Anyways, let me know if there are any other details that could be added to this, or if you think that this is unlikely to garner any support. I'd really rather not air my dirty laundry if it won't help at all.

Jette