I seem to have lost most of this year, I've not been well, we've moved house and a lot has happened.   Never mind I'll try to bring you up to date now.

Among all the presents they had for Christmas the cheapest must have been a 'cloak' I made out of some spare material.   Ryan calls it his "flying" and sometimes even wears it to bed !

Ryan has been in a 'main-stream' class at school, he does not keep up of course but he has made friends there and interacts with the other children now.   He has a full time ancillary helper in the class and we do have hopes that he will learn to read and write given time and lots of help.   He took part in his class sports day and got a certificate for "trying hard".  Here he is stood next to the infants school headmistress

During the summer there are various local events.   In July there was a 'Country Fair'  and here are some photos from that .  

Ryan on a bouncy castle type slide     

Ryan and Rebecca attack their auntie Beth with long balloons

  Ryan and Rebecca on one of the bouncy castles at the fair.

During the year I have been with Debra and Michael when they were looking at special schools where Ryan could get more help and, hopefully, do better.   In the infants school he was fine but going into Junior School there are levels to attain and Ryan would just get further behind.   That would not help him at all, and we fear that he may end up just being 'kept occupied'.   So after much thought and many visits Debra and Michael have applied for Ryan to go to a special school at Mount Charles.   Thats not far from home so he would not have a long journey to and from school each day.   We have heard that he has been accepted and should start there in January.

This is just a photo of Ryan and Rebecca ready to go to school. 

Remember she is over a year younger than him! 

We did have a nasty scare at the end of the year.   Ryan was sick, right children do that, BUT Ryan was violently sick  and told Debbie that his head hurt.   Straight down to the Doctor.  Who said that he just had the bug that a lot of other children had.  Debbie accepted that for a couple of days then saw another doctor in the same practice.    That Doctor sent Ryan to Treliske Hospital.   Rebecca stayed with us.

The next day he was moved by ambulance to Bristol - about 180 miles away.   As the ambulance arrived at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol the Neurosurgeon was waiting for Ryan.   He was examined then went straight into surgery.   His shunt had broken!   For us so far away from Debbie and Ryan it was agonizing.   At least now Debbie had Michael with her for support.

Ryan had a new shunt and within a very short time was recovering.   Children are so resilient. they just bounce back.   For a while we were all very worried and talked about postponing Christmas, nothing of that sort was needed.   Ryan had a new and very odd haircut but he did not seem to notice even that.   We noticed that he was almost hyperactive again though!

Thinking back (as well did) we realized that Ryan had been gradually and very slowly getting quieter for some months.   Because it had been so gradual, we had just not noticed how much difference there had been and what we did notice we attributed to his growing up.  

Shunts should be checked by a neurosurgeon regularly.   AS Debbie said, she does not mind travelling to Bristol to have Ryan checked out if it means we can avoid that kind of thing again.

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