Meet Bryce

When Bryce was only 6 months old, his mom, Paris, started noticing he wasn’t using his left arm. They tried physical therapy, and when that didn’t seem to help they searched for a diagnosis. He then got diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Despite this diagnosis, they are very optimistic about Bryce's future and know that he can do anything he sets his mind to. 

Q:How old is Bryce and what condition does he have? 

A: He is 15 months, and he was just diagnosed a couple months ago with cerebral palsy. 

Q: How did you guys find out he had cerebral palsy? 

A: When he was 6 months old, I came home from work one day and Paris was like, “hey have you noticed he doesn't use his left arm?” And I was like, no. Not really. Because if you startle him or he gets scared, he'll do the reflex that all babies do. He's always done that since birth. So I hadn't noticed. It was just when he was sitting in his car seat. He would just sit and the one arm wouldn’t move at all and he would use the other one to do everything. So we were just trying to pay more attention to it. That same week we saw our doctor at a restaurant. When we asked about it, he said to give it some time. Then at 9 months, we're like, let's do some physical therapy. Then that really wasn't helping too much, so they're like, well, let's do imaging. Let's do an MRI. We went and got that done, and then it showed that his brain on his right side didn't develop, which is causing some weakness on his left side. So his arm and we see it also on his leg. 

Q: So will he use his leg? 

A: Not as much. He has a baby walker, and he'll use both legs, but to just stand by himself, he's pretty weak that way. If he's in his car seat and you push on his right leg, he'll push back. If you push on his left leg, he doesn't push back. In his walker, it looks like he's using both, and I think it's mostly his right dominant, but he does use his left, which is promising. It’s great news for us and his future. We're confident that he'll be able to do stuff.

Q: So what was your guys' reaction when you found out? 

A: We went to the appointment for the results of the MRI, and the

doctor walked in. He just immediately says, it's not great news. Your baby's fine. He’s ok, he’s not dying. He just has some issues with the right side of his brain. He said, you're gonna cry and you're gonna cry. I didn’t think I was going to cry till that moment. We had to work that day. So Paris took the kids home and I went to work, and we both called our parents and just bawled to them on the phone, basically explaining what's going on. 

I'm just really grateful the doctors were proactive. Like, we need to get everything done, let's get going. Let's get an x-ray on the shoulders to make sure that's not affecting it. We got the diagnosis so quickly so that we can move forward with this whole therapy and things that will help it. So, consider physical therapy, that's just gonna be part of it. We've done that, before 9 months probably, he was in physical therapy. He's said, that's the solution regardless 

of what it is. The solution is getting physical therapy. And we're so grateful to him for that. 

Q: How do you guys feel from your initial reaction to now? Do you feel like you're improving? 

A: It was pretty emotional for a little bit. just getting used to it and just thinking about his future and what that's going to look like. I'll start crying now if I think about it too much. The answer is just physical therapy. He's just gonna have to do a lot of physical therapy. He's progressing every time. We have a therapist that comes down, works with him weekly, and she always talks about how great he's doing and the improvements that he's showing so that makes me super optimistic. 

When I see others that are in the same situation, and they’re adults, like I saw a guy at Walmart the other day who was walking with canes, and I was like, “oh my gosh that could be Bryce.” But we won’t know how he’ll be until he’s older.  

Q: What is your greatest worry for Bryce's future? And like how are you overcoming that? 

A: I mean, I worry when he goes to school just being picked on. People get picked on for dumb things, and he legit has a reason to be picked on. So that's a worry. He's pretty lucky that he has 3 older brothers that push him. I think you're really gonna push him to wanna just be as mobile and he can prove as much as he can. 

I think we're really optimistic, honestly, with what his future is gonna look like. We think his arm and his leg will be as well as you can expect. His left hand will be kind of be the part that is gonna take probably a lifetime of work. In our family, we haven't really talked that much with our boys because I don't feel like that's super important right now. They don't need to know that he has issues. They can just treat him normal. He may be a little bit slower with things, but no need to treat him differently right now. 

His older brother, Jack, is a big feisty boy, so I think he's got a bodyguard that he's gonna watch out for him for sure.

Q: What would you say Bryce has taught you guys? 

A: Even with his disability, he's still so capable. He really is. I don't think there's anything that has stopped him so far. He finds a way to get what he wants and with him being this little, that's really there's not a whole lot that he wants. But if he wants to move around, he's starting to, army crawl and get his arm up and going. He has his walker where he's mobile. He's very fast. He can do whatever he sets his mind to. We just have to keep on letting him know that as he gets older and if things get a little bit heavier. The thing about Bryce is he's just the smiliest, happiest kid he's ever. Every time you go wake him up in the morning, he's just in his bed, rolls over. The smile already. Just a special boy. 

Q: What does a typical typical day look like for you guys? Do you have therapy appointments? 

A: I don't feel like it's too different yet. He's a baby still, and I can still carry him around. It's not anything too strenuous. It's just more difficult for him to be mobile if he's not in his walker. 

It can be frustrating for him. You just have to carry him a lot more than you usually would for his age, but not anything too different.

Q: How often do you guys have to do therapy? 

A: Right now, it's just once a week. We're trying to get on with some state insurance to kind of help with this therapy appointments and stuff, and then it will be twice a week as well. Really hitting it hard while he’s little.

Q: As far as doctor's appointments go, do you have to go to more or you're like regular checks? 

A: We did go down to Primary Children's for an appointment with a specialist down there. Our doctor ordered us to do that just to see if there's anything else that they saw or were concerned about, and there wasn't anything new. That was good to hear. Basically, right now, unless we see more concerning things start to develop, there really isn't a reason to go down there besides annual checkups. Doctor Simpson said he will have imaging of the brain throughout his life, but nothing excessive.

 It really depends on each situation with cerebral palsy because it affects everyone so differently. Like, how much therapy and how many appointments and how it affects you and stuff. But right now, not too much so we're really happy about that. 

Q: So what would you say, how can others help support you and your child? 

A: Honestly, I don't know. Just treating him normal. Like, I don't feel like I need a whole lot of sympathy. It kind of makes me a little bit uncomfortable, but just treating us like we're normal. Like, he's normal. Not treating him, you know, in a different way that would make him feel uncomfortable or make him feel like he's has all the attention on him. Just let him do what he is doing. Which may be a struggle, but he'll learn, and he'll grow. And that's why I think I've 

shared that same sentiment. I just want him to live a full life and be treated normally and enjoy it. I think going through all this is really gonna help our older boys understand and be more understanding of others. 

Q: What would you like people to know and understand about cerebral palsy? 

A: One thing is that every case is different, obviously. But in a lot of these situations, like, mentally, they're there. They're all there, like, Bryce, as of what we can tell now, like, he seems to be all there. It's literally just just a struggle on his left side. But, I mean, it may affect his speech as he gets older. It may affect different things, it could cause seizures. We don't know. But with this diagnosis, there's not one size fits all. It's different. 

We are grateful that Paris and Randy could share their story about Bryce and what life looks like now. They did such a great job of advocating that every case is different, and that's something we should all keep in mind. They are so encouraging of Bryce and know that he’ll be able to do anything that he wants to. If you are looking for ways to support them or others that are in similar situations, here are some ideas! You can send them a quick text checking in on them, send them a gift from our strong families collection, and as Randy and Paris stated, just treat their child like everyone else by being a friend.