My name is Nicole. On February 23, my son Maddax woke up complaining that his leg was “asleep.” He got up and was trying to walk but kept falling down. Thinking that he was just tired since it was so early, my husband put him in our bed to get a little more rest. I had to work that afternoon, so I got ready and left for work. At 3 that afternoon, I received a call from my husband telling me to leave work because Maddax needed to go to the Emergency Room. He had gotten worse; not only could he not feel or move his left leg, it had spread to his entire left side and his right side was weak. My husband ended up calling the ambulance to take Maddax to LeBonheur, and I met them there. They started running tests, and he had an MRI. Then the doctor came to get us to let us know there was something on Maddax’s spine, specifically from his C3-T2 vertebrae. They didn’t know what it was, but all the options were scary. It turned out to be a blood clot. He had to have emergency surgery that night to remove the blood clot and stop the bleeding. He now has plates and screws in his neck holding his vertebrae together. They weren’t sure if he would ever regain feeling in his left side, but they were hopeful due to his age. The first night was scary because of an anaphylactic reaction to his pain medication, but we made it through. He slowly began making progress on being able to move his left arm and hand, but still couldn’t move his left leg. This continued a few days until one night he could move his left foot. The next morning, the neurosurgeon came to check in on him and moved his entire left leg! That was huge for him. We finally were released from the hospital, but he has a long way to go. He has months of physical and occupational therapy he has to do. He also has other issues that we are working to overcome. We are very optimistic about his future and him regaining full function.