*Mikey's about to have TWO pretty serious surgeries with 30+ days of intensive therapy in Kansas City to follow. It's going to be a lot of time, gas, miles, childcare, food, and hotel stays, etc. If you want all the details, they're all beautifully written below. If not, donations help & if you cannot donate, that's totally okay too! Please at least share it with someone you know. We love you all so much!!

In April of 2015, when I went into labor at 25 weeks of gestation, I did not know what would come of having a "micro preemie" enter the world the way Mikey did. We faced so many serious obstacles with him in the first 4 months of his life, and we did enough research to know that cerebral palsy was highly likely due to the amount of damage done to his brain when he was born. We quickly got him into early intervention, and he's done a fantastic job developmentally, despite the challenges we've faced.

However, his physical development has not been ideal. While he does go to therapy twice a week, his muscles do not cooperate with him the way we need them to. Mikey has struggled pretty badly mentally for the last couple of years because he sees his siblings, cousins, and friends do "normal kid stuff," and he faces serious physical limitations because of his cerebral palsy & dystonia diagnoses. We've spent time feeling guilty and asking ourselves, "What if we just haven't done enough for him?" Thankfully, that question was answered when he recently went in for an MRI on his brain.

What we found was that there is more damage than just what the eyes can see on a CT scan. A lot of the damage done to his brain due to premature birth is the root cause of his muscles in his lower limbs not developing appropriately (it also explains a lot of his behavioral issues & quirky little personality traits!).

As Mikey quickly approaches puberty, surgical intervention is a necessity. The team of doctors working with us is confident that surgical intervention will give him a golden opportunity to feel "normal" & "more like his friends."

In the upcoming months, Mikey will be undergoing two major surgeries to get him on track to feeling normal & being able to use the lower half of his body the way most of us do. He wants to run. He wants to ride a bike. He wants to be "normal."

The first surgery will be the insertion of an intrathecal baclofen pump. Baclofen is a muscle relaxer often used to treat patients with CP. Unfortunately for Mikey, being epileptic, when baclofen is given orally, it lowers his seizure threshold & increases his chance of having seizures. An intrathecal baclofen pump will allow Mikey to experience the power of baclofen in a much smaller, more concentrated dose, delivered directly to his spine. This significantly lessens the likelihood of him experiencing any of the negative side effects he experienced when he took it orally.

The baclofen pump insertion will be a 3-4 day hospital stay, with a 6-week recovery period to follow. Shortly after he recovers from that, he will hit the table for a second surgery, and this one gets a little bit scarier.

We met with his orthopedic surgeon last week, and his "problem list" is as follows:

I know, I know... Those are all really big words and don't make a lot of sense to most people, but here's the rundown:

To fix that, Mikey's basically going to experience an entire lower limb reconstructive surgery, and his orthopedic surgeon is going to partner up with another ortho bestie and fix him right up. As of now, the plan is to perform:

This is a massive surgery, and he will be in bilateral long-legged casts for 4 weeks following the procedure. When the casts come off, he will be in an INTENSIVE therapy regimen for another 4 weeks, as well as fitted for new leg bracing, and potentially new equipment to help him learn to walk! This is going to give him the chance to stand taller, walk more naturally, foster more independence, and grow up in much less pain than he's lived with for the 10 years he's been alive.

Between the pump surgery, the leg surgery, and the long recovery/rehab afterward, the financial costs add up fast — travel, time off work/cookies, medical bills, equipment, and therapy. We knew when Mikey was born that we'd face financial struggle, but the lack of resources available to disabled children has been a HUGE eye opener for me as I've navigated life with a disabled child.

Any donation, big or small, will go directly toward making sure he has the care, support, and resources he needs through this journey. And if you’re not able to give, sharing this campaign helps more than you know.