This teen’s difficulties began early in his youth with speech delays and behavioral issues that quickly escalated with the onset of a seizure disorder at 5 years of age. Now nearly 18 he is diagnosed with intellectual disability, scoliosis, convergence insufficiency, ocular-motor deficiency, disruptive behavior, ADHD, Tourette’s, autism spectrum disorder and most recently hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP). With his HSP this young man experiences muscle wasting, weakness and spasm in his lower limbs and hips, decreased range of motion, dementia and optic neuropathy.
In the past few years this teen has given up many of the things that used to bring him joy though he does still like art class where he gets to be creative, spending time on his computer watching You Tube videos and spending time with his 2 cats and 2 dogs.
He does enjoy taking long hot baths to soak his painful muscles and Alberta Dreams cannot wait to make his dream for a backyard hot tub come true this year.