BiographyBradley was born a healthy happy boy. He was such a good baby and soon had a lovely personality. When he was nearly 4 months old I was changing his nappy and he started do strange movements and his eyes rolled up and then he came round, I ran down to my friends panicking and she took him and he did his usual big smiles and gurgles then it happened again but he did some jerks as we'll. as the doctors was only round the corner I ran there with him and he called an ambulance.
The hospital told me it was probably a febrile convulsion and sent us home the next day. He started doing strange jerks and having seizures and I kept phoning the ambulance and taking him to the doctors but no one would believe me, so I borrowed my brothers camcorder and recorded about an hours worth of different things he was doing. They finally agreed after watching the footage Bradley had epilepsy and started him on meds.
On Christmas Day 2005 he had his first big seizure, he was fitting for nearly 4 hours before he was put on life support for the first time. He spent nearly 3 weeks in picu on a ventilator we didn't know if he would pull through but eventually they was able to take him of with out him fitting. From then on for just under 2 years bradley was on and off picu, we lived at the hospital and had some days at home usually resulting in an ambulance being called. They tried him on all kinds of meds that did not work. We got a diagnosis of mitochondrial cytopathy when he was about 1 but didn't get his main diagnosis of Dravets syndrome until the beginning of 2008. They started him on stiripentol and he responded nearly straight away he went from having uncountable amounts of seizures to 20+ a day.
He did learn to crawl, hold a bottle, play with toys and eat finger foods but soon lost those abilities. I think that one of the hardest things is that Bradley can't play. Soon it became so normal having a child who has seizures you end up dealing with it without a second thought.
He was eventually at home more than at hospital and we settled into life. I kept hoping he would learn to talk and be mobile but it never came. We moved to norwich 5 years ago and we got introduced to Quidenham hospice who have been so nice and helpful and I eventually I felt confident enough for them to care for him and let him stay. He started school when he was 6 (I couldn't let go) and soon I could see he really enjoyed it and the staff are so dedicated to him.
He had an operation on his hips in august which really took it out of him but he is starting to get back to our cheeky boy. He still has several seizures a day mainly at night and he can't do anything for his self as in dressing, toileting, feeding and moving. We don't know what the future brings for Bradley and what his life expectancy is, but I do know me and his big sister are grateful to have such an amazing, cheeky, cuddly little man in our lives.
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