William

For the month of August, William had complained at naptime about pain in his legs. It was always temporary, but after 3 weeks, I took him to see the pediatrician to lay it to rest once and for all. She examined him, drew blood to test for leukemia, and sent us for x-rays. The x-rays were perfect, just beautiful. The blood work came back that afternoon and was negative for any signs of cancer. With temporary pain occurring after sleep, she diagnosed growing pains. It made sense to me.

On Thursday, the week of the move, I took the kids to the mall to play on the playground in air conditioning to get away from the boxes and chaos in our house. William fell down a lot, his legs just crumbled underneath him. He fell at least 8 times on the hard mall floors and his legs were shivering from exhaustion. I knew that after the move we would have to return to the doctor. Friday, before closing, Doug’s mom came to pick up the kids to keep them for the busy weekend. When we saw her Saturday night after the move, she mentioned some concern about his legs and how weak he had become. He was unable to climb the stairs, fell frequently on solid, level ground, could not jump or run. I didn’t seem him until Sunday morning and I was shocked and terrified at what had happened to him over the last 2 days. His fingers had curled into a nearly unusable position, he had to lock his knees to be able to stand at all, his gait had completely changed to a stiff, slapping step and he could not dress himself or hold his own cup. The family had already done a little internet research to try to find a solution to his problem, but what they found were scary, horrible illnesses which terrified us even more. Of course, the doctors offices would be closed that Monday for the holiday, so he would have to wait until Tuesday to be seen. I cried Sunday and Monday night more than I slept. What we feared the most was Muscular Dystrophy, though his symptoms fit it best. We brought him “home” to the new 2nd floor apartment Monday night. He could not climb the stairs or make it more than a few steps at a time without falling. I prayed fervently almost all that night. There was no way for me to sleep, knowing that some horrible news was waiting for me at the doctor’s office the next morning. By that time, half the church and extended family had been notified for prayer. I, myself, had emailed my closest friends asking them to pray for William and for me. I felt helpless and desperate and down right depressed.