Gabe's Story
My mom being a nurse was worried and voiced concern. I worked on him for a month and finally got him to sit up on his own at 9 months. He sat up for another 4 months BUT never attempted to move any other way. On his first birthday I watched him learn to scoot on his bum positioning his entire body and using only his left hand to reach a balloon. I was so happy he was moving only to realize 3 months later at his first evaluation he was low toned and would need to start physical therapy.
After the first evaluation Jordan and I were shocked at what we heard and were sent on to a pediatric specialist to rule out possible genetic syndromes.
Within the first 10 minutes of the exam Dr. Sampson-Fang told me she was not worried about his lack of movement that he will get there with therapy BUT she looked right at me and said "Does Gabriel talk?" "Has he ever babbled?" It hit me like a ton of bricks my son doesn't speak! How as his mother did I not notice he never cooed or babbled. He never mimicked back an utterance. Had I been so busy not to pay attention to the milestones Gabe should have been hitting. I felt like such a failure. That is when I heard the term Apraxia for the first time.
Three months later , tubes in his ears , glasses on his face and his strong will Gabe took his first step. His voice came much later.
Gabe is now 4.5 years old and has been going to speech therapy twice a week for 2 years. He has a component of childhood speech apraxia and auditory processing disorder. Gabe physically fought to take his first step and has to fight even harder to FIND HIS VOICE. When I hear him say anything it takes my breath away because it truly is a miracle. How we all take for granted how easy it is to speak. Speech therapy with Maria has been the key to unlocking Gabe's voice with that being said its also very expensive .
Jordan and I have tried to come up with numerous ways to fund raise and that is why we are changing our blog. This coming spring we will be having an annual garage sale and we will be hosting a 5K to raise money to help with the cost of therapy and schooling. In the meantime if there is anything anyone would like to donate I will be selling items on KSL and Ebay. This blog will keep everyone updated on any new information.We feel so grateful and blessed for all the support we have received and want you all to know we love you! One day Gabe can look back and say THANK YOU !
Thanks for helping me find my voice!!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Half Marathon on the way!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Gabe's Progress
Well on the first visit she asked if he was ever tested to see where he actually stands in his age group when it comes to understanding vocabulary. In July he was 4 yrs.and 4mths and he ranged 2 yrs.and 4mths. I know it sound scary hearing those numbers but because Gabe was nonverbal until 3.5 yrs.of age how could he possibly understand vocabulary.
The great news today is Gabe now ranges 4.5 years of age HELLO Gabe is 4.5 years of age. He is average with his peers. Can you believe it? I am so proud of him.He has worked his little butt off trying to communicate and catch up. This doesn't mean he is cured. He has a long way to go just because he understands vocabulary doesn't mean he speaks at 4.5 yrs of age . Now his speech needs to catch up . I'm just so happy to post progress in anything. HOORAY FOR GABE!!
Sunday, November 21, 2010
This will be Hollie’s blog primarily however I wanted to share a bit about how I have seen this unfold and some of the feelings I have had around my view of Gabe and his fight to push forward.
Our Doctor at the time kept telling us that it was cute that Gabe scooted on his butt and he would grow out of it soon. It got to the point where I just couldn't stand hearing the same old thing again so I had a heart to heart with our doctor. I told him that I knew he was not thinking about Gabe after hours, I knew he looked at his chart a few minutes before meeting with us and really just didn’t care more than bringing us in and getting us out. I told him we needed a doctor that would think about Gabe when we weren’t there and figure out how to help him push forward or we would be going elsewhere.
At this point I feel like things really began to move. Gabe was given lots of tests and concluded he had poor eye sight, low muscle tone, chronic ear infections and was most likely apraxic. After receiving tubes in his ears and glasses he began walking about 2 days later... At this point I almost went and slashed the tires of the doctors we had been dealing with but was thankful to get him walking and seeing better.
This is when we really began to understand that this would be a long haul of therapy and accepting that our child had a disability. I would tell myself and others that he would grow out of this soon and he is just like any other boy his age. I wanted to just deny the fact that there were things he may struggle with long term... I wanted to fix him and this situation so no one would ever associate him with a disability. I feared that he may be ridiculed in school and kids may call him a retard if he didn’t speak well. My heart broke thinking that I at one time in the past would have done the same to a kid in my early years (Jr. High).
One day I took Xander and Gabe to the Apple store at the Gateway to get a macbook.... it was a madhouse of people and craziness. Xander and Gabe were fighting and running around the store and I just wanted to get out of there but had to wait for someone to come and sell me the machine. I was standing by a person for a few minutes and once I got the boys to settle down I was talking with Gabe... he was responding with babble and grunts... the lady asked me if he was retarded. I looked at her for about 30 seconds, grit my teeth and clenched my fists and said “why would you say that?”. It was clear that I didn’t want a response and I just shook my head at her, mumbled a few horrible words and walked away.
I met up with Hollie about 15 minutes later at the food court... when I told Hollie what had happened I broke down and cried. I thought if this is what Gabe has to look forward to I am going to end up in jail for seriously mangling someone and I can’t allow Gabe to ever be mocked like that. Luckily Gabe was only about 2 years old so he didn’t understand any of this interaction.
Since that moment I have been outside my mind determined to put this overwhelming energy to educating his family and helping him overcome his disability. We have had him in speech therapy for 2 1/2 years and we are now getting prepared to send him to a Montessori school once he gets into 1st grade. Hollie and I have become speech and hearing experts and have joined some support groups to help us work through this. We are also beginning to raise money by selling things on Ebay and KSL for people that have things they would normally be taking to the DI or throwing away. We are also arranging a race that I hope to put on each year to raise money to help pay for therapy and his schooling.
Hollie and I have really come together to work as a team to help Gabe and enable him to find his voice. He progresses every day and in my heart of hearts I know he will have a productive life, touch many people and serve the lord in ways that us “normal” people cannot. I think back to my time in Colombia and learning the spanish language. Debate this or not I was a smart capable person that when not able to speak or communicate effectively was treated like a dummy. People would not speak to me unless I forced them to because they couldn't understand me... I became obsessed with learning that language and dang near beat people up to speak to me thus helping me learn and progress much faster than what was considered normal. This is what we are trying to pass on to Gabey. We want to speak his heart out even if it is not totally understandable and people may have to strain to get it. We want to see him be confident in his ability to learn and grow over this trial and show himself and the world that nothing can keep him down.
Other than his speech he is just like any other boy his age. He burps, farts, plays, fights, even reads, flirts with girls, reasons, learns new things and interacts well with others..... He just can’t speak completely and we are working on that!
I am proud of my Gabey and know that with the help of our Heavenly Father and the village that surrounds us he will overcome this and get the last laugh!
Thank you for reading this post. Our family will remember forever who helps us and will hold a special place in our hearts forever.