Central Florida Farms
Aquascape Landscape Tropicals Fruit Trees House Plants Aquarium
.
Adding Life to Yours!
.
The Story of our son Corban Mattocks, so far...
Believe it or not, this is the short version
Corban in late July 2006
.
Corban the trouble maker, The final Edition
One Hour into this life
2 hours into this world
3 Days old
Born almost 4 weeks early, this little guy sure caused some trouble over the last 10 months. Wasn't sure if we were all going to make it through, but THANKFULLY, mother and baby are doing well now. It is final that he is the last unless a miracle occurs. Thank you ALL for your support in the last few months and putting up with our slow response and deliveries.
Everything in our life was going perfect with our healthy and happy daughter Hannah and were both thrilled when we found out in late January 2005 that we were to have another baby. We found out very early due to a blood test that she had to have prior to taking a pain medicine. Good thing! Due to insurance reasons, we didn't have the same doctor that we had for our daughter, that was sad to us since Dr. John White in Daytona is one of the best prenatal OBgyns. Could not have been any better of an experience, period. The new pregnancy was going great (as it can go) until about 3 months into it.
We had a car accident on March 9th (ill never forget it since I was driving) and Angel wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Hannah was safe in her car seat (wow was that thing ever tested to the fullest) and she was perfectly ok with no injuries. It was one of the worst days of my life, hands down. It wasn't my fault, but still feel guilty. It was raining and some idiot decided to stop at the bottom of a hill in the middle of the highway instead of going into the available left turning lane out of the way of anyone else driving. I saw a car about a 1/2 mile in front of me slam on the brakes and slide a couple hundred feet right into the parked truck, so I hit the brakes and they locked up and did the same as the other car, but somehow avoided the other car that had hit the truck's rear. Weird stuff has always happened to me in my life, I have been told by my friends that I should write a book because its just unbelievable. The insurance companies to this day are confused about that one. Then the guy takes off and leaves the scene. That was a good thing actually, so neither of our insurance companies (or us) could be at fault. The State trooper wrote no tickets to either of us. Some of you might remember that time if you ordered anything from us around March 2005. This is when our business time became little and very difficult to keep up with and began getting negatives on ebay. I can understand that and didn't give any back unless the people lied about the transaction. Prior to that, we had very few. Some were not even legit, just unhappy people that no one can please. I still pressed on and did my best.
Anyway, she had been at the doctors after that accident no fewer than 2-5 times a week and a few hospital stays in-between. She had a terrible doctor that at first we thought was a saint. She had preeclampsia with Hannah in the last 4 weeks and was hospitalized by Dr. White immediately and for good reason. Preeclampsia can be deadly. For Corban's pregnancy, she had pregnancy induced diabetes and took insulin via needles and extreme hypertension from 4 months into it. She also had weird pains in her abdomen continually that the doctor would not address. Finally after going to the hospital one evening due to her blood pressure staying at 160 over 120 even with the meds (she was taking the max amount of meds allowed for pregnancy) for more than an hour and her feet and ankles were severely swollen, that worthless doctor "fired" his patient (my wife) when she had less than 2 months to go before delivering Corban. He diagnosed her with preeclampsia that night and said that there wasn't anything he could do to help her. He told her that she was "wasting his time and his other patient's time" with the amount of visits that she had accumulated during this pregnancy and sent her home with the words, "good luck on finding a doctor who will take care of you now". The nurse was even crying and said for us to come back immediately upon any of the symptoms that were on the sheet of paper she handed us. Well my wife had ALL those symptoms already, right that very second. She was crying and scared at the same time for herself and our baby behind her belly. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we found another doctor the next day who placed her in the hospital immediately after running a couple more (repeat) tests. She stayed in there until having an emergency 'c' section because of the problems she was having were getting worse. So Corban was born a little over 3 weeks early. He came out all blue and real small compared to Hannah who was 10lbs to the gram at birth. I was worried about him being blue but didn't say anything and let the doctors do their thing. He was ok. He was 6 lbs 6oz, a far cry from the 10 pounder last go-round. All her deadly symptoms went away after having him and we were just happy that this part was over and he had 10 fingers and 10 toes etc. We had no idea what was coming up in our lives.
Since he was 3 weeks old he had a continual onslaught of sicknesses, ear problems, fevers, colds, everything, and was not ever a happy baby (who would be?). He spent 90% of his awake time crying and 3-5 days a week either in a hospital or in a doctor's office. I am not exaggerating. His primary doctor told us that "Corban was the sickest child that she had ever known". It took about 14 visits for that doctor to even take my wife serious, thinking that she was a new mom and just overreacting even though we had a child already. I wanted to leave that doctor so bad but for some reason my wife still trusted her at the time. The nearest hospital is Halifax Medical about 35 minutes away from our home and the furthest one is Shands in Gainesville about 2.5 hours away. Arnold Palmer in Orlando is another one we visited a few times and its about 2 hours away with traffic. All his doctors were between 30 & 40 minutes away, so the gas and time was exhausting our resources (yes, all of them, the metal ones too). He wasn't eating very much, would not eat the natural way from mommy, and what ever he did manage to eat, it would be spit up almost immediately, continually and completely until the next feeding time in about 1-2 hours. We'd changed his formula several times and finally stuck with a new one that is a pre-digested type due to the gird condition. That stuff smelled & tasted nasty! I don't know how he could eat such a thing. He still was not gaining weight and spit it up and was in the ONE percentile range with 100% being the best place for him to be compared with all other babies his age. We used Dr. Brown's bottles, and gave him Previcid and every other anti-nausea and anti-indigestion med that was available for infants. Nothing helped. He wasn't talking (babbling) like he should have been (making the sounds they make for his age) and everyone thought that he was still a month old when he was 4 and 5 months old. Now, I looked young all my life, that is until I had children. I looked like I was 9 years old when I was 15 (again not exaggerating). I was still being told that I looked young 20's until my grey hair began 2 years ago and was even carded for a pack of wine coolers (not a normal purchase for us) last year. So being the intelligent father (haha), I thought it was just a genetical issue. We went to 3 specialists and 4 different pediatricians to find out why was continually sick, crying inconsolably all this time, not gaining weight and not holding anything down.
In the meantime, my poor wife was having some serious complications as well. She still had the severe pains from the time she was 3 months pregnant with Corban in her abdomen and the doctors could not understand why. They removed her gallbladder after a few tests and said that it was inflamed and totally filled with stones. She was in there for 8 days so i was taking care of the babies. Hannah is extremely intelligent (isn't your kid the smartest too?) and was actually helpful even being around 2 years old. So after she was able to come home, she started having the pain attacks again in the same place. She went back into the hospital for another 6 day stay and they removed more stones that fell out of the gallbladder and were somehow overlooked during surgery. There, all done. Nope. She still was having pain attacks and went back to the hospital for a few days. This visit was not a good one. They could not find anything wrong with her and treated her like she was a hypochondriac and even had the nurses treating her rudely. Yes, this does happen. They sent her home with no real help. So she's in pain and dealing with crying, sickly Corban and Hannah (who thankfully was / is healthy & well mannered, but a very active child).
After all this and not being able to spend hardly any time with our customers and late shipping and late emails etc, I had to get a full time job for insurance and more money to cover all the medical bills. In late January 2006, I had ordered the website to be disabled from taking any purchases and sending auto email replies to that nature with a note on the index page stating that we were closed for the summer of 2006. It was just to be left up for informational purposes. I had to do this until I could catch my breath, gather my senses, get my wife and Corban well and try to get things to a normal pace again.
Feeding time is over now what?
FINALLY after 9+ months of torture for him (and us), a fourth well studied doctor suggested to get ear tubes implanted to relieve the backed up, excessive fluid behind his ears. I was skeptical since he was so young and it seemed like to simple of an answer to his problems, I didn't want to take a chance and damage his ear drum. Turns out it was THE solution to most his ongoing problems that a multitude of doctors could not figure out. I guess that's why they call it a practice. I'll tell you now that this year was a test of my faith. Immediately, the day after the surgery and he stopped crying from the afternoon before, he was a totally different child. He was laughing and smiling and only cried when he was wet or tired. The doctors said that since his hearing was blocked that bad for such a long time that he will need to catch up in his learning and speech and is about 3-4 months behind. But he's catching on quickly and almost to where he is supposed to be. He is still behind in walking since his equilibrium was messed up since he was a month old. No wonder he was always throwing up!
Since everything accept my wife's ongoing, un-diagnosable pain (were still trying to resolve this), everything seemed to be getting back to a routine. I checked the email account where the Central Florida Farms emails are forwarded to (I forward them to Google since it takes about 10 minutes an email just to open and send from the website's mail account) one day just to see if it was still active and WOW, was I in for a new experience. Complaints on every heading about where the order was and I want my money back. after reading a few I checked the website, and saw that it was not disabled from making purchases and no message was on the first page. So I did my best in contacting everyone who had ordered in the last 3 months (I had not checked the website or emails or shipped anything from the end of January until the end of June 2006). The good thing about PayPal is that if someone paid and didn't get service and files a claim, if the seller doesn't respond, then they get their money back. That was actually a great relief for me in this problem. I began shipping the orders to those who confirmed that they still wanted them and resumed the business earlier than planned. I got some bad feedback on Dave's Garden Watchdog site (again understandably so) about this messy happening but, I will press on. Again I am thankful to those who have some understanding about the craziness of life and allowed me to make things right with them. I am still working a full time job to keep the insurance and paying off the medical bills. So life is insane, so what? What else would I be doing if it weren't? One day we'll laugh about this, I hope.
He's got the "Mattocks" cheeks
Corban's immune system is still lower than normal and recently caught what looks like the measles. He started with a fever so we take him to Halifax because it was 104 with meds. They said it was an upper respitory infection and sent him home with no care except to allow it to run its course. Two days later he got a deep red rash and bumps all over his body that began on his face. We took him to the doctors and (this is unbelievable), the nurse said it looked like scarlet fever, but the doctor came in and evaluated him and sent us home with "I will call you later with my evaluation". After 4 hours my wife calls and wants an answer and waited and waited for his doctor to call. Finally around 5:30 in the afternoon she calls and basically lets my wife know that it was impossible for him to have measles and that its probably Rheumatic fever. A condition MUCH worse than measles in the long run for his health. She spoke to wife with indignance and only prescribed a blood test for measles. This was Friday and we have to wait until Monday to find out the results. His fever is gone now but the red bumps are still present. It turned out to be a 4 day long heat rash. Poor little guy.
Everything is back to a somewhat normal pace again, I don't plan on it ever being as smooth as it was "BK" (before kids), but will still do my best to serve you as best as I possibly can. Your patience has been more than appreciated and I really cant put in words how much I really do thank everyone and apologize for these past few months of uncertainty with our company.
at 15 months, The Saga Continues....
Just after a wonderful, relaxing, very enjoyable Christmas time, on December 27th 2006 around 9:30 pm Corban was given his bath in the usual way and was made ready for bed. He was placed in his playpen and was up playing (being as happy as he normally is and as healthy) while Mommy cleaned a little bit. She just sat down to finally relax. She wasn't relaxed for even 4 minutes when she didn't hear Corban playing, but heard little scratching noises coming from the playpen. She looked over and he was unconscious, blue and twitching. Frantically, she screamed for help (we were staying at my parents for Christmas celebrations) and everyone came running. No one knew what to do. My dad was there and gave him mouth to mouth and he began breathing again as my mother called 9-11. I was not there and was at the nursery (about 40 minutes away) trying to get things in order and not aware of any of this. About 10 pm I was called by by wife, she was crying and saying to get to the ER in Flagler right now that Corban... and that was it. I flew out the door needless to say and got there in about 35 minutes. Its normally about a 45 minute drive. I was getting updates the entire time that he was ok and becoming more alert, but still had a fever. He was not sick prior to this although he's been having fevers on and off for a few months and no one knows what is causing them.
We were told that he had a febrial seizure and the doctor on call explained what it was and that this one was more severe than normal. Usually babies/toddlers don't turn blue and stop breathing is what we were told. They ran his blood and did some other tests and the blood work came back and revealed that his white blood cell count was elevated to just over 31,000. That is extremely high and indicated a bacterial infection of some sort. They wanted to do a spinal tap to find the cause of the infection, but there were no qualified personnel on their roster there. That scared us and we asked the risks and they told us. They said it was a more common procedure now and risks were low but always present.
They needed to find the source of the infection. That hospital does not have sufficient pediatricians on staff and recommended that he be flown or taken by ambulance to Wolfson's Children Hospital in Jacksonville. It was either there or Halifax (Halifax is closer but no where near as great as Wolfson's as we found out). I wanted what was best for Corban and didn't know which one to choose, but luckily, "someone" did. There were no available neurologists on call at Halifax that night so it had to be Wolfson's. They called ahead and prepped his room and made sure they were ready and he left Flagler and arrived in Jacksonville about 6:00 am. No one got any sleep. I tried to sleep but couldn't, Angel was not about to do anything like sleep.
The Wolfson's team of doctors were helpful immediately but because Corban had already been given antibiotics (a very strong dose), it was pointless to do a spinal tap now. I was kinda relieved but we never really knew what caused the seizure other than he had a sudden rise in temperature to a fever of 103.1. That was it, 103.1. They kept him there for over 5 days and ran every test they could do to find why he had a fever. Finally they found a virus that said had to have caused the temperature spike and the prolonged high blood cell count. but he never showed signs even after the seizure that he was ill. No runny nose, no lingering fever, no watery eyes, no diarrhea etc., nothing. So it was still a mystery as to why he had this. It doesn't run in either sides of the family.
They left us basically with the information that he is 30% likely to have another one. If he does, then his risk goes to 50% to have yet another one and after that it might be a regular thing until his body can regulate its own temperature from hot to cold and from cold to hot environments. He has been to a new doctor weekly since that swore to get to the bottom of the strange fevers and has ran test after test. He thought it might be leukemia since that DOES run in my dads side. His sister died at age 3 from leukemia in the late 1930's. This has us worried. I think that leukemia can be treated and cured if found early enough and hope that the tests were accurate. Since it has happened, two other people that i know shared their experiences with me about their son also having the seizures. One is now 11 years old and outgrew it by the time he was age two. The other is now almost 3 but had one about 4 months ago.
Unless one experiences something like this, no one can understand what effect this has on their daily life. Corban is a little man and plays rough even at 16 months old. He's very strong in his muscles for someone that began his life so weak. He is such a happy "little man" although since the seizure, he becomes extremely cranky without notice or reason that we can determine. We don't know what to make of it. If it's just him getting used to all kinds of attention and taking advantage of it, or if the seizure had an effect on his mental status. I am hoping its just him getting a little spoiled. That can be solved. He still (for the most part) is happy and playful and seems eager to learn and do the things that toddlers his age do. He still continues to get fevers and is constantly needing medicine for that and has not spoken any words and this concerns us and the doctors. He should have some type of vocabulary by now.
He was just referred to an immune specialist and will be seeing him this week. He is also scheduled to see the speech therapist next week to help improve his speech. The immune testing showed noting out of the ordinary and since his re-occurring fevers had went away and the doctor's could not find anything, we left it alone. Last updated in early February 2007.
Corban about to give Spongebob a good smack! Corban just being himself
December 2nd 2007 - Corban just turned two in October and still isn't talking more than 5 words and we only know what he means because were his parents. Angel noticed about a month ago that he has been regressing in his walking and balance. He falls down a lot and keeps bumping his head. Then my sister saw it and my mother noticed it. So it was confirmed. He walks on his toes and then changes foot positions when his feet hits a different surface area, like from hardwood to carpet or up a step etc. From walking tip-toed to flat footed. Doesn't matter if he has shoes on or not. I didn't think anything about it since even though he doesn't speak, he seems to understand everything we ask, tell or say and Hannah's walked on her toes her whole life so far. But, Being a concerned mother, my wife took him in to be examined. One of the worst days of our life! First the pediatrician was walking on eggshells after he examined him. Then Corban was referred to specialist for further evaluation. Because he walks on his tip toes and flat foot and steps differently on different surfaces, loses his balance easy and was regressed in his walking, both doctors in that office said he probably has muscular dystrophy. When we heard that, you don't have to guess it was devastating. It's basically a death sentence with a long, slow process. We are praying that they are wrong and hoping he is just a late bloomer. We took him to church today and had the whole church pray for him. The therapists told us that she's been doing this for over 20 years and Corban has every sign of some type of problem. Its either a long term effect from the initial febrial seizure from last year or worse, muscular dystrophy. The therapist is sure that something is going on, but they can't conclude a final diagnosis just yet. They have not run blood tests, so he is scheduled to go see a neurologist next week. Then they are supposed to do an MRI And CT scan. They think if it isn't MD then he might be having mild regular seizures and we are not seeing this. Or maybe more severe ones while were all sleeping. But the therapists thinks its some form of brain damage from the initial seizure or continuing seizures. His febrial seizure last Christmas was an abnormally severe one where he was not breathing and was blue until he was resuscitated. He was out for about 10-15 minutes. She also said that it is very unusual for doctors to diagnose MD in children before the age of five. My wife found out the same day as the therapist told us what was going on with Corban that MD does run in her family and her cousin died from it at age 20. Our daughter has been walking on her toes since she was able to walk and everyone says this is normal. If it is MD, she could either get it or be a carrier of it. So far, she is very well coordinated in all she does physically and developed very early in her speech. As mentioned on Angel's Page, Hannah is very smart. She's almost at a second grade learned level and she just turned four in September. She helps out and is a great big sister.
We will not know any more about Corban's condition until all the tests and evaluations have been finished, probably just after Christmas or January is what they are saying. I've been reading about MD and really hope that this is not what he has. There is no cure, only lots of therapy.
Still wondering what this is all about here. Especially that strange thing in the window sill. Maybe some type of ancient communications device?
I'm updating this tonight February 26th 2008. The bible says that everything happens for a reason and all things work together for good to those who trust the Lord. I believe that. Today was a milestone and a day I'll never forget. It has taken this long to get Corban evaluated. I have to say this. Since that day that our church prayed in the name of Jesus Christ and anointed him with oil as the bible says to do for healing, we noticed an immediate turn around. First it was in his walking. He stopped falling down and bumping his head into things like the wall when going around a corner. He began to speak new words daily and will learn them now when you sound it out for him. Before he wouldn't try or didn't or couldn't. That change happened over a couple days! I was amazed to say the least. We still had to go do the testing that was scheduled.
About 3 weeks ago, he was finally scheduled to be evaluated by the Little Steps program. That was where his mother, me and Corban went to their office to do a 3+ hour long evaluation. I cannot remember the name of the test, but it tested the levels of his speech, gross and fine motor skills, cognitive and social level. The office is set up like a living room and they had a locked tool-kit box of toys. The whole purpose was to make him feel at ease and at home and see how he interacts with his parents and strangers as well as the above mentioned. After the test, they showed us the results and he was well above average in his cognitive level for his age and his fine and gross motor skills were right where they should be. He interacted with everyone there and did what he was supposed to with all the toys etc. The only thing was his speech, but we explained about his first 8-9 months of life having fluid behind the ears and they said that is what's holding his speech back. We also explained that since he was prayed over, he immediately began improving in his speech. They said they have seen that more than a few times. They also said he showed no signs of MD that they could see at all. There were 4 doctors evaluating him. So he got a very good evaluation and we left there extremely relieved as you might imagine.
We still had to go to the neurologist for another evaluation for the initial possible muscular dystrophy diagnosis. So my wife took him. I felt that all was well and didn't go, instead I went to work. I have missed a lot of work due to Corban's issues and they are becoming frustrated by this. I had to get on the Family Medical Leave Act so I wouldn't be fired. I should have went that day and regret not following my heart and being there for my wife. I just thought that they were going to say all is normal and I didn't need to be there and miss any more work.
The neurologist watched him walk and spent about an hour and a half with him. She did some sort of reflex test with his feet about 30 times. Normally feet turn down when this reflex test is administered, but in abnormal brain activity or other disorders, they turn up. His feet turned up. She did it that many time to rule out the possibility of a mis-diagnosis. She concluded that he positively either had brain damage in his white cells from the seizure in 2006, a virus or from my wife having the pre-eclampsia, hypertension and diabetes during the pregnancy. Or worse, that Corban has autism. The doctor was adamant that Corban has a problem and ordered an MRI and EEG. What a bombshell to be dropped after being lifted up the week prior. I wish I would have went to be there to support Angel, but instead I broke my own rule of 'family comes first' over fear of what my employers would think if I took yet another day off. I learned my lesson. So there's that weighing us down again. I was still thinking that he was ok since I knew of the definite change and progress in him after the prayer that day. I'm not being a religious fanatic, it was a positive improvement that everyone one noticed. But that evaluation was lurking in my mind and making me wonder. He was scheduled to have an EEG and an MRI a month from that day. Why they take so long to do these tests, I will never understand. We wanted them done now but had to wait.
Sunday night, I just get here about 9:30pm, (35 miles away at the nursery) after spending the day with my family, trying to fix our website so google doesn't pull it from their index again and get a call. Corban had another seizure. Not as severe as the first, he didn't turn blue, but it lasted about the same time and took about an hour and a half for him to snap out of it and be himself again. He has been sick with this mean virus that's been going around, but his fever had been under control for a few days. So it wasn't a fever spike this time. Angel checked him just before he went to sleep, as soon as she discovered him having the seizure and on the way to the hospital. So here we are again. by the time the doctors saw him, he had fully snapped out of it and appeared normal. Like we were lying about it. He was just sick with his cold or flu or whatever it is and the doctor was going to send us home! Angel said, "no, you're going to find out why he had this seizure and if he's going to be ok"! I'm glad. They caved and began the process to admit him. So we're waiting over night in the ER to get a room. They observed him all night and scheduled an EEG for the following day. I had to leave to watch Hannah. Neither one of them slept. Corban was uptight about being in a strange place and Angel was worried sick. The next afternoon they gave him a small dose of something to help him sleep so they could run the test. It didn't work at all, didn't sleep and they didn't want to give him anymore medicine so they postponed it until Tuesday. Tuesday morning we called the church and our pastor and the secretary came by to pray for him again and then left. I love our church. they are real loving people. The doctors gave him more medicine and were able to do the test. It didn't last long and Corban woke up just when they were finishing. He is a strong willed little man.
I called the neurologist's office that had deemed him to have brain damage to see if they could go ahead and do the MRI now since he was already in the hospital and explained that he'd just a had another seizure. They faxed over the script for it and they scheduled that for today. Again, Corban would not respond to the sleeping med as before so they used a local anesthesia for the MRI later in the afternoon. We waited for him to be finished with the MRI and when he came back was groggy, but came out of it pretty quick and was alert as before in just a few minutes. He was not allowed to eat or drink since 9pm last night and still couldn't until they were sure the anesthesia worn off so he wouldn't get sick. So we was miserable, but still had a great attitude. Now all that was left was to get those test results. While we were waiting, the hospital did the same reflex test with his feet many times to get a clear diagnosis. The result? Was normal every time! The EEG results came back as normal showing NO problems with seizures. Those tests are to see how often he has had seizures and they are accurate. normal. The MRI came back about 6pm - normal. No brain damage whatsoever. Can you imagine how we feel right now? We're on top of the world! This was a huge test of my faith as has the last 2+ years been. It isn't over with everything else, but I have never seen God work in my life like He has lately. I thought I had, but this and something else that I will write about later. This has topped all things so far. I have learned to trust God no matter what life appears. If there are any that doubt still performs miracles, maybe this could be a testimony. I know the doctors who gave him the diagnosis are scratching their heads. This trial isn't over I'm sure but, This gives HOPE! This is REAL.
He is still battling the speech area. But ever since the day we took him to be prayed for at church, he did a 180 and began speaking new words the next day. His speech therapist really is shocked at how much he has progressed over the last few months. He still cant pronounce his "T" or "S" sounds and sounds like a deaf person a little with some words, but he is getting much better. We have to stay on top of it. Every now and then he wants to revert back to grunt noises for yes and no and points instead of telling us what he wants. We make him tell us what he means so he will get better. he doesn't get near as frustrated at communicating as he used to and the therapists ran more psychological/ aptitude tests that showed he is above average for his age. At least as far as aptitude is concerned. He's only 2 1/2. He acts like he's four.
Custom Made Handcrafted Name & Theme Kids' Puzzles & Benches
Visitors
©2001-2008 David Mattocks - Central Florida Farms All text, design, color scheme and photos noted - All Rights Reserved