Like my other two boys, I skilled morning illness during the first few months of Damian’s pregnancy. We were excited and didn’t think whatever would go wrong. We erudite we were expecting boy #3 during a monotonous ultrasound. I wasn’t shocked, but I had hoped for a girl. The anatomy scan at a high-risk office shadowed. I thought it was simply due to a previous issue connecting my son, Jonathan.

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“They saw somewhat wrong with the brain, yes?” the ultrasonography tech asked casually during the selection. I went cold. That was not what I had been told. Next the scan, we were shown to a small, scheduled room where a sympathetic doctor explained that Damian needed to be closely watched because his brain ventricles were teeming with fluid. Since I didn’t think it was serious, I felt at comfort.

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However, when I was by myself for the subsequent scan, I saw that nothing had better. My condition has gotten worse, according to the doctor. I started crying. “Your little boy needs you robust he’s still perfect,” he said as he sat next to me and put his hand on my bear. After I moved my care to a larger hospital, they well ordered an MRI and kept a close eye on his ventricles.

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The MRI was noisy and painful. The doctor called a few days later. She said, “Your baby had a stroke.” After hanging up, I moaned in Michael’s arms. It was implausible to me. I took a break from work because I was so inconsolable. In addition to being larger, Damian’s ventricles were occupying the unfilled spaces left by injured brain tissue.

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I had many tests and hospital stays as my pregnancy advanced. Most of them Damian failed. At 36 weeks, we made the decision to deliver by caesarean section. Despite my fear, I tried to maintain my hopefulness. I found peace when I heard his loud cry at natal. He had the ideal arrival.

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Damian was soon found to have Factor V Leiden, a blood clotting disorder. Rendering to his doctors, it was the cause of the early gravidity strokes. He survived, but most cases like his end in lapse.

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Damian currently faces numerous medical tests in addition to severe intellectual palsy. He is unable to sit, walk, or speak. He has epilepsy, is tube-nourished, and is visually impaired. He started having daily appropriations when he was five months old. To help stop them, he experienced a major brain surgery in 2018 called a hemispherectomy. It was fruitful.

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Damian lasts to fight through it all. And I am very proud of my beginning son.