Saturday, August 30, 2008

Nicholas's full report explained

I just wanted to die after his appointment, believe me we now know how lucky we are to have him. Nicholas actually has a very severe form of PVL (Periventricular leukomalacia) his is actually so severe we were told that 75% of neonates that are dxed with it as severe as his are dxed during autopsy!!! Of the 25% who go home they usually have severe spastic quad CP, 23% are severely mental handicapped, 38% are mod, 38% mildly, and only 1% "normal", most are either deaf or show severe hearing loss, vision problems, and so on. The doctor that was explaining it to me (while me and DS1 because he was with me) said "he should be much worse, with the amount of damage he has I'm surprised he's even doing most of what he's doing. He has so much damage...to be honest it's like I'm looking at the wrong child." To be honest I wanted to puke! He did say that there was no signs of a brain bleed or anything else and he feels it is 110% caused by the distress he was in during labor (the hospitals fault). He *TRIED* to pull up the CT report from their hospital (the one he had in December) and it's "missing" the only note about it was made by the ER doctor and it says "mom thinks CP caused by problems during delivery, CT scan shows everything is "normal" and this is a classic case of Cerebral Palsy with no known abnormalities". The doctor said this was total BS that there is no way even without contrast that they missed this amount of damage...it is just that bad his brain is no where near being "normal". This all leads DH and I to believe that since I admitted I think they caused the CP that the doctor/tech was trying to cover for them and hid it, which just makes me SICK! We are just so very very lucky to have him in the spot that he is in, he could have been so much worse. I am kind of thankful in a way that it took so long to find the real cause, I don't think if they would have put him down as having little hope for a normal life that they would have tried so hard to "fix" him KWIM? I've seen it first hand in clinic, kids that have the potential to live a normal life get better and more therapy then a child who was basically put down as having little hope of leading a normal life. Having it all totally explained and told exactly what it all means/meant was a bigger blow and bigger shock then reading it....we are SO LUCKY to have him and have him doing as well as he is doing.


Anyone else been told their LO has severe PVL??

4 comments:

Amy said...

Oh wow sweetie, I totally understand. This is Emma's story too, and I know that is why we have had to fight to get her the best therapy. She was one of those kids labeled with little hope!!! She is beating the odds, but has a long way to go and we fight all the time to get people to think about ways to help her in the traditional therapy arenas. Yes, you are very, very blessed that little Nicholas is doing so amazingly well. I think this is why I totally hate MRI's. They can destroy hope, and Nicholoas is proof that such a tragic injury doesn't always mean a poor prognosis.

I know how tough all this is, but it seems typical that institutions try to hide information when they know they are at fault. It is sick and sad because in the long run in hurts people.

HUGS, and thank God that you little man is beating the odds.

Sheila said...

I have no words of wisdom for you, just want to send some hugs your way. I'm sorry you've been dealt such a blow, but glad that you found such a wonderful doc to explain it all so well to you. Our neuro tells us nothing! Just keep in mind that Nicholas is already beating the odds and try to forget the rest. Only he will determine his future, not the tests or the doctors. ((HUGS!!))

ellen :) said...

I think when we got Sam's MRI results, it was like, it was just pointless. He also has PVL, and a small corpus callosum, but the neuro didn't really tell us what any of it means. I didn't really care because it's not like it helped us know what the prognosis will be...it was just depressing like you said...He didn't tell us whether the PVL was severe, but Sam's CP is, so I assume it is... You are right to be thankful that Nicholas is doing so well...he is a trooper!! :)

Anonymous said...

It breaks my heart to read about Dr's negligence etc...been there with little Jason. The missing notes, oh my gosh, I feel your pain. But do you know what? Your son is very lucky to have you as his mommy. It takes a strong person to hear things like that and still try and think positive about the future for your child. Remember we cannot predict the future. But it sounds like Nicholas has his own agenda for the future with the odds he has already beat down. That is awesome! (((HUGS)))

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