Cadence-a pediatric stroke survivor
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We have been asked a lot by people of what they can do to help our little girl so that's why we decided to start this page for Cadence. May is Pediatric Stroke Awareness month and the past 3 years we have done shirts to raise awareness in the community. This year we want everyone to share her story with everyone they know!
We want to be able to purchase Cadence an adaptive tricycle, for the one that would be the best fit for Cadence cost almost $2,000. So this is how you can help miss Cadence!
If you don't know about Cadence and her story, here it is for you to read:
Our beautiful daughter, Cadence, was born 12/20/2010 and was the happiest day of our lives. We started to noticed she was not using her right hand at 4 months old, as first time parents we just thought this was normal and trusted our doctor. At 6 months we brought the issue up again and we were referred to early intervention and from there we had speech, physical and occupational therapy evaluations. August 31, 2011 was the day that broke our hearts..we were told our baby girl suffered a massive stroke that damaged most of the left side of her brain. Her stroke happened late in the third trimester of my pregnancy, 1 in 2800 chance of happening.
Now that we had a diagnosis we were able to move forward, but we had no idea what was in store for our little girl. One thing we learned is that she is a fighter and a survivor!
The first year was one if the hardest for us, really just accepting the fact that we were now parents of a special needs child. Our child was going to have to work ten times harder at everything in her life and we just had to have patience. She was going to do things when she was ready.
April 2013 Cadence had surgery to fix her hip. The muscles were so tight in her right leg that over time pulled her hip out of place. The surgery was simple, it was the 4 weeks of both legs in casts that was the hard part! We follow up with her orthopedic surgeon every six months and so far her hip has stays in the same spot, but her hip will never be 100%.
After her surgery Cadence started having horrible episodes of seizures. She had to have an overnight EEG to determine exactly what kind of seizures she was having. The next day we had yet another diagnosis to digest, infantile spasms. In most cases this typically happens in babies between 6-9 months, Cadence was two! So they only way to get rid of infantile spasms is to treat with high doses of steroids. Oral prednisone didn't do the trick so then we had to try ACTH, which is an injectable very high dose steroid. This entailed a 3 day hospital stay, 2 shots a day for a week and 1 shot a day for a week which were given by mommy! After all of this Cadence no longer had the spasms and was seizure free and has been since July 12, 2013!
After almost 2 years of hard work Cadence was finally an independent walker!! She does have to wear braces on both feet to help her walk and her little legs get tired quicker, but nothing is holding this little girl back now!
Cadence goes to school where she receives speech therapy, physical therapy and occupational therapy.
Cadence continues to amazes us everyday and makes us so incredibly proud to be her parents! She makes the room light up with her beautiful smile and some how has touched so many lives.
Here's a video of Cadences walking journey.
We want to be able to purchase Cadence an adaptive tricycle, for the one that would be the best fit for Cadence cost almost $2,000. So this is how you can help miss Cadence!
If you don't know about Cadence and her story, here it is for you to read:
Our beautiful daughter, Cadence, was born 12/20/2010 and was the happiest day of our lives. We started to noticed she was not using her right hand at 4 months old, as first time parents we just thought this was normal and trusted our doctor. At 6 months we brought the issue up again and we were referred to early intervention and from there we had speech, physical and occupational therapy evaluations. August 31, 2011 was the day that broke our hearts..we were told our baby girl suffered a massive stroke that damaged most of the left side of her brain. Her stroke happened late in the third trimester of my pregnancy, 1 in 2800 chance of happening.
Now that we had a diagnosis we were able to move forward, but we had no idea what was in store for our little girl. One thing we learned is that she is a fighter and a survivor!
The first year was one if the hardest for us, really just accepting the fact that we were now parents of a special needs child. Our child was going to have to work ten times harder at everything in her life and we just had to have patience. She was going to do things when she was ready.
April 2013 Cadence had surgery to fix her hip. The muscles were so tight in her right leg that over time pulled her hip out of place. The surgery was simple, it was the 4 weeks of both legs in casts that was the hard part! We follow up with her orthopedic surgeon every six months and so far her hip has stays in the same spot, but her hip will never be 100%.
After her surgery Cadence started having horrible episodes of seizures. She had to have an overnight EEG to determine exactly what kind of seizures she was having. The next day we had yet another diagnosis to digest, infantile spasms. In most cases this typically happens in babies between 6-9 months, Cadence was two! So they only way to get rid of infantile spasms is to treat with high doses of steroids. Oral prednisone didn't do the trick so then we had to try ACTH, which is an injectable very high dose steroid. This entailed a 3 day hospital stay, 2 shots a day for a week and 1 shot a day for a week which were given by mommy! After all of this Cadence no longer had the spasms and was seizure free and has been since July 12, 2013!
After almost 2 years of hard work Cadence was finally an independent walker!! She does have to wear braces on both feet to help her walk and her little legs get tired quicker, but nothing is holding this little girl back now!
Cadence goes to school where she receives speech therapy, physical therapy and occupational therapy.
Cadence continues to amazes us everyday and makes us so incredibly proud to be her parents! She makes the room light up with her beautiful smile and some how has touched so many lives.
Here's a video of Cadences walking journey.
Organizer
Sarah Poole
Organizer
Westminster, MD