It's been over 10 months since my 8yr old had his stroke, and I would like to give an update to all the people that have asked, helped and shown concern and love for Ryan...
To say that the last 10 months have been hard is an understatement, not just on Ryan but his brother his mum and even the dog has felt, and had to deal with some adjustments. So much has changed and we have had to deal with each problem, large and small in different ways that we would not have a year ago.
In the past week, we had our last appointment this year with his Neurologist, and he is so happy and impressed with Ryans recovery, and after 3 MRI scans he has given him the "ok" that nothing else has happened since his stroke and we will now see him in a year's time. He will stay on medication for next next year, and this might be stopped if in time they believe he no longer needs this. It was a concern to us that he would have to be on medication for the rest of his life, but fingers crossed this might not be the case.
So physically Ryan is almost back to himself, he just gets tired by the end of the week and grumpy.... which leads us onto where we are now with him. Emotionally he is so different in many ways, he now has a lack of confidence and increased anxiety about new things, places and being on his own in rooms even at home. He will not go upstairs if there is no one up there, and will only go to bed if I'm upstairs in the next room. This of course has a big impact on our day to day family life (I don't get much done at all in the evenings once I take Ryan to bed). He also has anger outbursts, sometimes out of being mad or being told no about something, and other times it's out of frustration, but all times he almost has to burn himself out before he can stop, which can take an hour plus. This did only happen at home, but on occasions has now happened while out and at school. This has lead us into getting some outreach help. Once a week he gets to sit down and talk or play to see if they can get him to open up about what's bothering him and also to come up with a programme to help him and us. This is a slow process, but something we believe he needs.
With the Neurologist giving him as close to "all clear" as he can, because it's looking more likely that we will never find out the real cause of the stroke, a high spike in his blood pressure was the reason, but we don't know why that happened, and his bp is now back to normal and is check every two weeks. Anyway with that he has been told he can start rugby again next season, which has made him a very happy boy, he has so missed being on that pitch with his team. Speaking of which, Leyland Warriors had the end of year presentation last week and even though Ryan hadn't played this year they asked him to still come as he had done some training, watched matches and supported when he could. The coaches said some lovely words about him and he got a round of applause. Great club and great bunch of people.
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And just to finish on an even better note, today Ryan was invited to the North West Regional Life After Stroke Awards Celebration, to acknowledge the fact he was nominated for a Life After Stroke Award in the Children and Young People category, very proud of this young man.
Thank you all again for asking about him it means so much to us.
Lee.
