Originally posted by: Aikouka
Originally posted by: DVad3r
Hey thanks for your response to my thread. I work with alot of kids with mental retardation, autism, down syndrome, fragile x syndrome, etc. For my assignment I am looking for more physical disability that prevents people from doing normal every day life things, and if you would like to share that about your brother and his daily routine day, some of the things he needs help with etc, that would be cool. Also what exact condition does he have?
Go into detail if you want, the more the better, your personal challenges and feelings also count in this as it affects everyone.
PM it to me if you want, in case you are not comfortable sharing such details with regular ATOT.
Sure. He was diagnosed with leukemia as a young child (I believe 2-3, I can't remember exactly). None of the medicines and treatments seemed to work well, but there was an experimental drug that supposedly showed promise. So, they tried that... but the hospital didn't really seem to care much and he went into seizures from the medicine. If my father wasn't there, he probably would've died from the ordeal. But the seizures caused some fairly extensive damage to certain areas of the brain, literally almost resetting him back to an infant.
He's 18 today and he acts more like he's about... mm 8? He has fairly normal motor skills except it very little use of his left hand/arm (I don't know if the area of the brain that controls his left arm was damaged at all or just that he never used it) and one of his leg's growth was stunted leaving him with uneven legs (which actually isn't horribly uncommon in most people (as well as uneven arms), but his is more severe). He's kind of hard to describe mentally. I'm not sure I ever see him progressing beyond his current aptitude. He can speak just fine, can do basic arithmetic and sure can watch TV mindlessly (sounds like some non-handicapped Americans :laugh: ). I've been a bit curious about a couple things dealing with his memory, as it seems he remembers dates and such better than most people do, although it's quite selective. He'll go on and on with things such as "Do you remember that last Wednesday, September xx when I was siiiiiiiiiiick?" The crazy thing is, the dates aren't ever wrong.
I'd say his age points toward the more immature 8 year old state as he tends to toss himself into delusional roles. Like how someone got him one of the Karaoke Revolution games and he will constantly go on about how he's a "Rock Star" (god how that got really annoying) and constantly challenges temporary authority (such as before, if my mother wasn't home and I was... he'd never listen to me). Also, the way he reacts to... I guess you could say change makes me lean more toward that age. He always goes to bed at the same time and wakes up at the same time, regardless of whether he needs to. He also has that awkward notion that it's not the next day until it's time to wake up (although I've corrected him on that numerous times). Also, oddly enough... when it's time for him to go to bed, he'll never talk... only whisper (as in talking normally when it's bedtime is a bad thing or something).
His daily routine... he literally goes to school, comes home, watches TV (he loves game shows like Wheel of Fortune and cartoons... so much he'll watch the same one over and over and over
), colors in a coloring book or plays video games (usually a singing game as he cannot use a controller too well).
I think some of the reactions that people have ( myself included ) are more related to annoyance. He tends to talk... a lot and repeats himself constantly. If you don't want to listen and you even remark about it, he won't be quiet.
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