Do you mind telling us a little about his SIB? How this impacts upon his life and your own?
After my father passed away, we moved to Maine from Texas. We left our two acres of land, and moved into an apartment in Portland, Maine. That was a huge mistake, because a few weeks after we moved here, Bryce began to bang his head. Most kids start off on soft surfaces then work their way up to the hard stuff…not Bryce; he went directly for the hard stuff; our hardwood floors were his surface of choice. It was too many transitions at once: my dad passing, the moved to Maine, and our small apartment set it all off. Two weeks after he began this behavior, he went into Spring Harbor hospital for his first of eight stays there. Most people on the spectrum feel pain and temperature differently than we do; therefore, I don’t think he felt pain from it as it was all about sensory. And as for how his SIB’s impacted my life, I would say obviously it’s unbearable to watch your child go through that much pain, but the odd thing, he’s had multiple CT and brain scans and not one showed any damage to his skull. Not even a hairline fracture.
How is life for you now?
Our life is still a little hectic, but, leaps and bounds easier than it was. I have pushed Bryce to learn new things: help me around the house, and as of late pump gas. He also learned how to start the car in the winter so that it can get warm before we leave.
Below is a video of Stephanie and Bryce singing. It was taken a couple of weeks ago. Stephanie wrote this song for Bryce when he was seven-months old.
“I was always afraid he would never know this song or that I wrote it for him… this video shows he does.”
What was your inspiration behind Maine-Tex?