Welcome to Gaia! ::

rofl i think us parents know that rant all too well xd anywho i hope everyone is well and the kiddos arent to bogged down from the weather!

I'm here to support. I have no children but I'm pregnant. Although I hope my baby won't have medical conditions, for it's health, I understand slightly... I don't tell this to many people, but when I was 3 years old, my mom had a baby and she smoked and drank when she was pregnant with it and it died when I was four because of it. I know it was a girl and her name was Molly. I remember she didn't even realise what her hands were for untill... six months, probably.

well i've posted here before about my sister. now i may have some good news. we'll find out when my mom can get her tested but i'm getting ahead of myself. let me start at the beginning. my sister is mentally challenged, legally blind, deaf and sometimes a pain in the a**. she has had siezures once a year every year since she was little. just recently, in the past three years, she's been siezure free. my mom was sure that she wasn't just retarded that she had something. so she went to so many doctors. first it was downs syndrome, but she looks normal. so it went to autism, but it wasn't that, maybe cerebral paulsy(sp?) but it wasn't that either.

well just recently my tia (aunt) went to disneyland with my little cousin and were on the jungle cruise when she heard something interesting. There was a family right next to them with a daughter that made the same sounds my sister does (she's fairly vocal). My aunt leaned over to see the girl then tapped one of the parents on the shoulder "Excuse me, i don't mean to be rude but what's wrong with her? What does she have?" she asked. The lady smiled at my aunt and said "she has Angelman Syndrome."

Well this was new and interesting. The lady explained some of the symptoms and they matched my sisters such as 80% of the people have hard to control siezures, they have a fairly happy attitude and they'll laugh at times that they're not supposed to (say when someone falls or gets hurt or in trouble). Also they're not mentally challenged just delayed in some ways. like my sister can figure out any electronical device yet she can't learn past "ABC" in her letters or "123" in her numbers and can only write a "K" for her name. They also can only speak about 3-5 words but some have up to 10-20. my sister has the higher number.

This is a very new and interesting topic. It was found my a man named Angelman. HE studied the DNA chromosome structure closely and found the cause for the way these children are. It's a very tiny mutation found on the maternal or 15th chromosome. So now we're going to get my sister Kathleen checked to see if she has it.

I know it may sound mean or sad or whatever but it's actually easier to deal with to think that she may have something. cuz it's not just some random thing. it's something that we can research and learn how to deal with better. it may help us be able to work with her better and help her more.

Has anyone else heard of Angelman Syndrome or have a child with it? I'd really love to talk to someone about it. Here's the website in case anyone has a child with these symptoms or wants to know more about AS:
Angelman Syndrome Foundation

and here's a picture of my sister:

as you can see the eye that is blind is clouded over but it's amazing what she can see with only one eye. and sorry the pic's big. this was at her birthday on December 24th

She is a wonderful girl, just sometimes a pain in the butt but that's because of the way she was raised. They really spoiled her and so she throws tantrums a lot but we just hafta deal with it and work with her. it gets hard but we have to. I really look up to my mom for all she's been through and all that she puts up with. she's an amazing person to be able to go through so much. So is my sister. They both are amazing. My sister wasn't even supposed to last through the first night.

sorry for my absence but eric had his mri on thursday and had to be intibated for it (tubes in his trach and esophogus) so he's been really sick and miserable we were in the ER sunday night after he was projectile vomitting till 2 am gonk he's still really sick atm but finally sleeping and holding down his fluids ..hes got this wierd rash now ontop of the virus and trachesophogus trama (swelling soreness ect)..and it may be the chicken pox ! but he had that vaccination neutral im just glad the puking stopped oh and hes keeping the jello down ..yay!

Thelana Darkstar wow thats interesting i hope you guys get some answers finally.
Dragoon_Arcadiai wish more people could realise how special all children are regardless of disability

Dear sweetness im back gonk So eric had his MRI and has been sick ever sense ive had him in and out of his doc and the ER well now since a few days ago hes like fine , he finally stopped projectile vommiting everything at me and is back to his old self ..now he just uses his hands to throw the food at me .. rolleyes .. i suppose thats an improvement xd yay ...now he has more tests wed...just as he's better gonk crying mad stupid doctors! So how is everyone?
heart Lisa

I haven't posted here in awhile but I just wanted to let everyone know that my son is going in for testing next month...I found a local place *East Tennessee* that is called the Special Learning Center...they do free testing for learning disorders on the first and third Tuesdays of the month...they also offer a special Kindergarten for kids who are not able to be in a regualr Kindergarten...so far this place is looking pretty nice...and the free testing is a mega bonus since my ex-husband has yet to switch my sons insurance back over to Tennessee...I'll update again once we know something...