Cerebral Palsy and Autism: Laura’s diagnosis blog

Throughout October, we’re sharing families experiences of diagnosis. Mum Laura shares her blog below.

Early days

“Shea was six weeks old when he got very poorly. On the 4th February 2020, he was diagnosed with a rare type of meningitis and sepsis after suffering two cardiac arrests and a stroke.

“It was such a scary time for all the family. We felt helpless. The first question I asked was ‘is it the bad meningitis’ and they said yes.

“Two and a half weeks later we were told Shea had a brain abscess. He went down for surgery within a few days and that wait was excruciating. He was so tiny. We spent the next three weeks in hospital and got released just before the first COVID-19 lockdown.”

“That’s when his seizures started and we were then told his brain had gone under the abscess and that he also had cerebral palsy. Our mind were racing as to what the future would be for Shea. But we have learnt now to just take one day at a time. He was also diagnosed with autism this year, which was a long process in itself.”

Life for Shea now:

“Shea is under 24 hour care and it changed the dynamics of the family too. Both myself and Shea’s dad had to give up work. His 12 year old brother is learning about Shea everyday and that even though he can’t play like other brothers, he still loves him.

“I specialise in autism and special educational needs but it was tough explaining everything to his brother.

“We had so many teams around us and we were lucky enough to be given a specialist nurse who is always at the end of the phone. We also had an early support worker from the children with disability team who was great supporting us all.”