Sad news for former RHOC Meghan Edmonds.
After notifying fans that one of her three children with ex-husband Jimmy Edmonds has been undergoing neurological testing, the former OC star finally has answers. In a new blog post, in honor of World Cerebral Palsy day, Meghan gave an update on her son Hart’s diagnosis:
King first noted how well Hart was doing saying:
“Hart is doing wonderfully. He is hardly considered “delayed” in any of his milestones and is functioning right alongside other kids his age. He runs around on the playground, he’s started identifying colors, he speaks in full sentences (sometimes), and finishes the ends of our nightly prayers. He even started preschool this year!”
Meghan’s mothers’ instincts knew right off the bat that something may be wrong with her son stating, “A little background: The moment Hart was born I knew something was atypical. He cried so much even the nurses didn’t know how to soothe him. And he suckled on my breast shallow and often. His limbs were stiff. He was easily startled. He learned to focus his eyes later than Hayes. And although he grew at a typical rate, laughed on time and played with toys, but I just knew something was different.”
After going through tests, Hart was diagnosed with “Periventricular Leukomalacia or PVL which is brain death caused by lack of oxygen. This is often a precursor diagnosis to Cerebral Palsy.”
Despite doing many things a normal toddler his age would do, Meghan admits that Hart still struggles, even after extensive therapies and treatments, “He struggles with balance – but this is hard to teach – so his therapy goals have shifted from physical therapy to making speech therapy the main focus. The intention is to help him learn to communicate and annunciate better (despite him speaking in many full sentences).”
After getting the diagnosis of Hypotonic Cerebral Palsy, instead of feeling crushed and defeated, Meghan felt relief. Meghan writes:
“I was expecting this diagnosis. Even though he’s the same kid I expected it to hit me hard. But it didn’t. It didn’t hit me hard at all. In fact I felt relieved. Think about it this way: it was as mundane as going through life every day without putting the lid on the toothpaste and then finally, I got to put the lid on. That’s how simple and right it felt. (I even had a dream the night before about being at the doctor and receiving the diagnosis and being unfazed.) This is the once dreadful diagnosis I knew was coming since that fateful day I googled the right thing and it hit me like a truck: CP. I knew it was CP since Hart was a few months old. I just knew.”
Despite the diagnosis, Meghan is hopefully and enthusiastic about his future saying:
“Hart will live a full, independent life. He will face challenges his siblings won’t and alternatively they will face challenges he won’t but we just don’t know what those are yet.
A diagnosis isn’t limiting, people are. We are all born beautiful and perfect and then we learn we are too fat, too short, too ugly, too inept, too… everything. We place others in boxes dependent on their labels and we unconsciously allow ourselves to live within those boxes: woman, college graduate, high-school dropout, professional athlete, Cerebral Palsy. I am choosing to celebrate what makes Hart different and raise my children with the encouragement to live their lives out loud and never let their differences limit or define them.”
Props to Meghan for being a mamma warrior to her sweet son – I have no doubt she will do everything in her power to help him reach his full potential!
Thoughts on Meghan’s news?
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Source: Meghan King Blog
