My daughter had a stroke. Yes, you read that correctly. In fact, she had a stroke before she was even born. How did that happen? I have no idea and I probably will never know. I had a perfectly normal pregnancy-well, maybe not "normal"...I had a hard time gaining weight and during the 35th week, I went to the ER because I hadn't felt any movement in awhile. Could that have been when it happened? I don't know. Cassidy was the smallest of my babies, but I knew that was gonna happen because I had barely gained 16 pounds, not the 40 I had gained with my other 2 kids. She was so tiny, had a whisper for a cry, and I would always have to wake her up to try to nurse her. She had ABO Incompatibility and was jaundice, so we took her home with phototherapy lights. At her 3 day appointment, she was almost admitted to the hospital because she hadn't gained any weight-in fact, she had lost too much. Luckily the pediatrician got her to eat a few ounces-I had to stop nursing her, but at that point I would have done almost anything to get her to eat.
Nothing about her development made me worry-she wasn't rolling over at the "right time" or crawling at the "right time" but would you if you had 2 older siblings who brought you everything? I wasn't worried. She also only sucked her left thumb and would always have her right hand fisted...again, I didn't worry. But when she was old enough to be put in an exersaucer and wouldn't put any weight on her right leg, I got concerned. We took her to a doctor, who told us that she guessed Cassidy was just positioned in my stomach a weird way, that after wearing a brace on her right foot for 6 months to a year, she'd be fine. That year came and went and nothing changed. In fact, she still wasn't walking or talking. Finally, by fluke, while vacationing, Cassidy got sick. We took her to the doctor and it was then that he told us it looks like Casidy has cerebral palsy. He said we should get her an MRI when we got home. We did, and in August of 2005 we learned that Cassidy had an inutero stroke. We were shocked-we had no idea that babies could have strokes, much less babies that weren't even born yet! We needed answers, so we took the whole family to see the neurologist who did the testing. Basically, we were told that we were lucky, that we needed to be thankful that Cassidy was as mild as she was, that we really didn't need to know why it happened-to not worry about what happened in the past.
After that we were introduded into the world of doctors, therapies, bloodwork, botox injections, more doctors, but so little information about why my daughter had a stroke. I happened to stumble across a website (www.chasa.org), where I learned that my daughter is not the only one to have a stroke inutero. In fact, strokes also occur in infants and children. I have met many wonderful families and I am priviledged to know many other tiny stroke survivors. I wouldn't have made it through this without them.
Today, Cassidy is thriving. We stay busy with physical therapy, occupational therapy, horseback riding therapy and preschool! She loves to dance, do gymnastics, swim and sing. Most people that meet Cassidy say they would never have known she had a stroke if it wasn't for the brace she wears. We are active with the RICHSS Organization (www.richssorganization.org) as well as the Kentucky and Southern Indiana Stroke Association. We are organizing a Pediatric Stroke Awareness walk on May 23, 2009 in Shelbyville, KY. If you live in the area, please stop by and walk with us!
www.caringbridge.org/visit/cassidycarignan
www.kidshavestrokes.org
www.thelucicenter.org
www.strokekyin.org
www.chasa.org