Roll call

[Guest guest]

Hi, I'm Christie. I have two sons, Darryl (13) and Sam (8). My husband's

name is Randy. We live in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN. Sam was born with

no apparent problems; around 9 mos. we noticed that he never held things

with his left hand. This led us to a CAT scan (possible stroke in utero)

which led to an MRI. The doctors first thought he had a type of

leukodystrophy and would continue to lose function and not live long. When

he proved that to be wrong, his diagnosis changed to " non-specific white

matter changes " . A couple of years ago he had his third MRI, and apparently

the improved quality made the PMG diagnosis possible (Bilateral Perisylvian

PMG).

Sam has left-sided hemi-paresis, he can walk, run, climb pretty well, but

use of his left hand is limited. He takes a low dose of Tegretol for

seizure control; he has not had a seizure in a very long time. He has a few

intelligible words, but mostly uses sign language. Sam is in second grade.

I home school him in the mornings (he is very distractible and needs a lot

of one on one for his academics). In the afternoon he is in a class

comprised of deaf, hard of hearing, & hearing students. It's a great time

for him to socialize, and he has some good friends at school.

Sam has an incredible visual memory, a very contagious laugh and is very

sweet and compassionate. He loves cars and wrestling with his brother. I'm

planning on posting a picture, but I still haven't gotten around to that.

Sorry to be so long-winded,

Christie