Forum for Special Needs Families

My name is Brittany... I'm a 23 year old mommy to three beautiful boys.

Tayden (3), Braysen (18 months), and Maddox (3 months). We live in Ohio, but are currently staying in Mexico until February. Tony, my boyfriend (their father) plays professional basketball overseas and is currently playing in Mexico.

Our oldest son Tayden, has a lot of medical issues... when I was 37 weeks pregnant they discovered he had severe hydrocephalus on the left side of his brain. His cyst was so large that it looked like he didn't have the left side of his brain at all. They induced me, and I ended up with an emergency c-section, he was born after 32 hours of labor. The day he was born he had a shunt placed... he was out of the NICU by the time he turned 2 months. But only for a month, he went back in and we discovered he had panhypopituitarism. His pituitary gland doesn't make the hormones he needs... he was diagnosed with having Diabetes Insipidus (this affects the sodium levels, not blood sugar... basically he can't hold on to fluids, he pees out rapidly and needs a medication called DDAVP to keep from peeing out all the time... he can get severely dehydrated without his medication... it's happened twice, where he almost didn't make it), he has hypothyroidism, and central adrenal insufficiency (which means his body can't handle stress of becoming sick, so he needs a certain hormone to keep him from getting severely sick over just a minor cold). He was out after about 2 weeks of testing, and went straight back in for seizures... they diagnosed him with having epilepsy.

When he was 4 months old, we noticed he wasn't looking at us, and would be scared by the slightest noise... we took him to 2 ophthalmologist, and they diagnosed him with having S.O.D. (Also known as Septo-Optic Dysplasia is completely blind... but S.O.D. is a little more complicated... it ties in all his endocrine issues as well as neurology issues... you can read about it here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septo-optic_dysplasia).

Due to the hydrocephalus being so large, he has severe brain damage on the left side of his brain...

He is going to be 4 on January 28th and still doesn't walk, talk, sit, eat, roll, or crawl. We are working on all of these... we know he is strong enough... he just doesn't understand how to do them, he just started to lift his head up from laying on his tummy... which is a huge feat for him.

He has the best Ophthalmologist, Neurologist, Endocrinologist, and Pediatrician a parent could ask for. They know him so well... and they are from the best hospital (in my opinion) in Ohio. They have never not once told me what Tayden wont ever do, they tell me it's possible he will never walk, talk and so on... but they said it's all VERY VERY possible... it just might not click for him until he 6 or 9 or 13, to just never give up. So we haven't...

He is a very special boy, the sweetest face, the brightest smile with the deepest dimples, and the most caring eyes... not sure if I can start sharing pictures or not... I would love to show you all my boys!

His little brothers adore him... Braysen is a little rough with him, but Tayden puts up with him so much... unlike he does with us when we do therapy, lol... he would much rather have Braysen crawl all over him... then to have us make him stand! Maddox is still so little, but you can just tell he loves him too... they are the two sweetest little brothers a big brother could ask for.

Anyway... if you read that all, good for you! Haha... anyway, I hope I can get to know other special needs parents... I have a lot of questions, as with raising my younger two... it's hard for me to spread my attention to them all. We do the best we can though.

Anyway, that's our story...