Angels4Zoey
Windsor, Ontario
~Making things possible oneAngel at a time~
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Zoey's Story.....cont'd
Ten days after the g-tube surgery she was transferred to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. She spent 6 weeks fighting infections before she was ready for surgery to repair a hole in her heart and enlarge one of the ventricles. This surgery was also tough on her and she spent 10 days on a ventilator afterwards fighting further infections.
Finally Zoey went home at 6 months and although her growth was immensely slow she continued to improve.
At 2 years old Zoey began to lose the ability to stand and crawl. We discovered 4 months later the reason was she was developing brittle bones. She had fractures and breaks, 8 in 8 weeks. At one point both legs and one arm were in a cast. Both arms broke, 4 in just one, 2 in the other, and both legs. Now we had to handle her like a china doll to prevent further breaks. This was a stressful time for all.
Zoey developed low calcium, vitamin D and phosphorus levels for unknown reasons. All other genetic testing for known causes of brittle bones or rickets have been negative. This is still a work in progress.
Zoey has not been able to speak yet so we all started learning sign language. She is having lots of fun with it. She can tell what you are signing but does not sign too often yet. She is developmentally behind her age level, in many physical things about age 1 to 2 years. Yet her comprehension is closer to age 3.
At the age of 4 Zoey was officially diagnosed with allergies and asthma. Her overall health had improved again with intense therapy and vitamin regimes to the point that she could crawl and was ready to start walking holding onto her walker without the chest and seat supports. Due to an unexpected accident Zoey's left femer broke. She ended up in a spika cast which went from her chest all the way down the broken leg to the ankle and to the knee of the good leg. This large cast was needed to balance the cast so that it would not cause a break in any other bones. This break has been the hardest on Zoey emotionally. According to the doctors it is the most painful bone to break in the body. In part due to being older and more aware she loved being mobile, but was very angry for the first 2 weeks of her break due to the lack of mobility. She really misses sleeping on her side. This cast holds her in a partial sitting position. She sleeps sitting up.
CAST OFF
The spika cast was removed at the end of August 2014 but the healing was not done yet so Zoey was not allowed to put weight on her legs for another month. For the balance of the year Zoey’s physiotherapy aimed to rebuild the strength in her legs beginning with crawling and building up to get her back in the walker.......
At 3 years old Zoey got her first wheelchair; pink! She loves the wheelchair. It opened up a whole new world of mobility to her. This mobility made her want to crawl and walk even more. It was a wonderful thing for her.
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