I was a young married mom when I had Jonathan. I had no idea what to expect or what to do as a wife or as a mother; it was all a new experience for me. I had barely touched the “What to expect books” let alone a Good housekeeping mag, but what I knew about family and kids were that they came first. There were moments of trial and error. Still, I watched him hit the early milestones with pride; he rolled over and sat upright, he crawled, and made the baby noises all babies made. To me, Jonathan was normal. I had no idea that my boy had abnormalities, and since I had no experience I would come to realize later on that the normal things were actually abnormal.
By the age of 1, I realized he was extremely active. Even if I kept him busy with physical activity or learning activities, naps were hard to come by and sleep were always fought to the bitter end. I couldn’t even hug or kiss him without his movement or flailing arms. Any down time or quiet time was filled with noise and CONSTANT activity, essentially I never really got a quiet moment to myself. I was thinking, “Well, he’s a boy, and this high activity should be normal!”
By the age of 2, I was seeing speech delays and very few words or phrases spoken. Unfortunately, it took awhile to address or identify these problems because I was busy going through a divorce. He began acting out and slowed down on achieving his growth milestones. I sought after a speech and occupational therapist and would soon start his sessions. The biggest eye opening for me was the fact that his brother was not at all like Jonathan.
One fine day during a check-up, his pediatrician identified abnormalities in his gait (stride/walk), and low and behold they diagnosed him with hip dysplasia (The socket of the hip did not cover the ball section of the bone, or developed outside the socket. Like a dislocation). They would perform further blood tests indicating excessively high AST and ALT liver enzymes that would suggest liver damage, so they scheduled a biopsy.
Family and friends heard about the problem, and they began sending prayers from all over the U.S. The results of the biopsy would then come back normal as if nothing ever happened, and it was miraculous. I kept up with Jonathan’s therapy and continued to monitor Jonathan’s health for the next 10 yearsf
The Giggle Hut Blog 