Introducing Myself -

[Guest guest]

My name is Dylan, I am mother to Jennica (17), Jarrett (7) and Jake

(5). Jake has a congential lesion in the right frontal lob of his

brain. It was discovered after onset or seizures at 14 months old.

First neurologist, who we saw until Jan. of 07, treated his seizures

only. And it was a long haul. There were times when he had up to 20

seizures a day, they were all over the map (drop fall, tonic clonic,

absence, you name it, our child had them). We had one year of

siezure free time from 3-4 years old and then they were back with a

vengeance and it took us almost a year to get them back under control

again.

I'm happy to report that he has been seizure free since March of last

year. A blessing!

We switched neuro's last January because we were concerned that our

neuro would not do a single thing about Jake's speech issues other

than recommend speech therapy. And that wasn't until he was almost

three. He kept saying he was a late talker. If I had known then

what I know now. *sigh*

Finally got a solid diagnosis of oral dyspraxia/apraxia, severe, from

the new neuro and have been working to educate myself and the school

district for the last year so my son can get the services that he

needs. It's been a long haul and a lot of work, as many of you know,

and we still aren't there yet.

I'm happy to report that Jake has moved for a four word vocabulary,

which included Yes, No and Om for " mom " and Ad for " Dad " , to about

120 words, not all intelligible to those unfamiliar with him.

I believe this change is the result of going outside the school

district with SLP's that are familiar with Apraxia and treatment

protocols, a drug we started him on back in June called Namenda, and

the addition of Omega 3-6-9 and Vit. E to his diet.

Noticing this post is getting long so I will stop now and say that

Jake still has a very long ways to go and I am looking forward to

learning what I can from you all.