Rambling about Ryder: Casts OFF!!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Casts OFF!!

Again we are so blown away by everyone's generosity. Ryder is such a lucky little guy to have you all in his life. We now have a grand total of $8824 in Ryder's account for Ability Camp!!! Big thanks, hugs and love to Ryder's Nanny Marg who made a very generous donation of over $1100!! And my parents back home who threw a huge garage sale where they made $1580!! Thank you to everyone who helped out and gave donations for the sale. Garage sales are a lot of work and we really appreciate all the time and organizing you guys did to pull off such a successful day.

Here's a smile from Ryder to show his thanks!!

Last week Ryder got his first Casts taken off and new ones put on. They were very happy with his extension from the first set and said the next set would be the last for this round of casting. He did good while getting them off but it was pretty scary for the little guy. He cried a cry I have never heard before, must have been the "I'm scared mom, please make it stop" cry :( Broke my heart. We bought him his own big boy headphones to listen to his Thomas movie but it didn't really work after the first one was cut off.

The second set of Cast were suppose to stay on till this Thursday, then because of some scheduling issues at the hospital they were going to need to stay on till the following Tuesday. I was pretty bummed because I feel like he hasn't had any real fun since he got them on. But Ryder was fine so I guess it would have to do. It was all good until this morning when Tyler noticed some sores starting to form under both casts on the soles of his feet. It looked pretty bad and our P/T agreed that they should come off to prevent any infection. Again he was not very happy about that darn saw but his mood switched fast once his little legs were finally free again!! They were so happy with the results even with having them taken off early. He can now get his feet flat on the floor! This is huge, as before he could only go up on his tip toes. We have already noticed he has so much more stability when standing now :) We are very happy and the casts were definitely worth it.

I really wish I had a video of him before the casts to really show how much of an improvement this is.

Ryder's P/T also made him night splints out of his casts to wear until he gets his made next week. They don't seem to bug him at all :)

Sleepy boy has had a long day! Good-night :)

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Ryder's Story

Ryder and Wyatt are our identical twin boys that were born 12 weeks premature. They suffered from a "rare" disease called Twin to twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). TTTS affects 10-15% of identical multiples sharing a single placenta. Basically what happens is there are crossed vessels in the placenta forcing one baby to have way too much blood, nutrients & oxygen and the other not enough. Left untreated this heartbreaking disease has a astonishing mortality rate of 90%. Unfortunately I was not diagnosed until I had already gone into labor at 24 weeks gestation so not much could be done. Thankfully the doctors were able to stop my labor and we all made it to 28 weeks. The boys entered their nicu fight together but sadly on their 24 day of life we had to say our goodbyes to sweet Wyatt. Our hearts broke in a million pieces but somehow we picked up a few and continued our fight for Ryder. Ryder stayed in the nicu for 67 long days and was finally able to come home 2 weeks before their anticipated due date. It was a bittersweet day for many. We were told by every doctor that Ryder was just a "normal" baby and not to worry. I never felt right about this and knew there was something more to come. When he was 11 months old he was diagnosed with Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy. Our hearts broke once again and we were left to wonder what his future would hold. When we started this blog Ryder was 19 months old and still could not sit, crawl or walk unassisted. Since then he has made tremendous leaps but he still has a long way to go. He see's his physio therapist and occupational therapist twice a month and speech pathologist once a month. This is what our government will offer and we don't feel it's enough. He has so much determination and we know given the proper tools and therapy nothing will stop him. With your help we sent Ryder to Ability camp in January 2012 and there are many other treatments and alternative therapies we want to give him the opportunity to try. Thank you for supporting Ryder and following his journey!