Spring Fun Fundraisers
Twin Palms Center Bowling Fundraiser
proceeds totaled close to $2600.
Thank you volunteers for your help!
Summer is in the air!
Clients look forward to some
Summer outings including visits to the
Sugar Sands Park, Strikes@Boca and the Library.
Drew’s Story
On January 22, 1985, Drew Mundell came into our lives after an easy pregnancy and delivery weighing in at 6 lbs 9 oz. The well baby check up went smoothly the hours after his birth; however, the second day was when the Doctor discovered that Drew had a minor cleft palate. “A what?” I said…..and so the adventure begins.
They say the first few weeks for new parents is challenging. That was definitely an understatement for us! I was unable to nurse Drew, and we had trouble getting him to drink from a bottle. It seems that his sucking ability was minimal if non-existent. Drew started to lose weight which I knew he couldn’t afford to lose. After several visits to the Doctor, we got a referral to contact La Leche League, www.llli.org for assistance. This is a group that supports new mothers with nursing problems. They recommended we purchase a lamb’s nipple for the bottle and poke extra hole in the end so we could squeeze the formula gently down his throat. My parents and I hit every feed store on route 441 that we could find, which then, was way out in the “country”!
We were able to find what we were looking for although it was quite a sight…3 or 4 inches long and black heavy rubber…..yuk! But, it worked!!!!!! Finally Drew was eating.
We had to repair Drew’s cleft palette, but could not do so until he was at least one year old to withstand the anesthesia. Dr. Millard performed the surgery at the Miami children’s hospital. The procedure went well and I was able to stay with Drew throughout the entire ordeal. The hardest part then was getting him to eat with a sore mouth. I was frantic when the nurse came in and yelled at me for not getting him to eat, so she held him down with her whole body and forced him to take the bottle….I have never cried and been so terrified in my life, and I can’t imagine what Drew was feeling, I felt so helpless. Fortunately Drew learned the lesson quickly and we were out of there in two days.
With all those set backs we were worried about Drew’s progress. He never really babbled or made a whole lot of noise except when he cried or laughed out loud. He didn’t walk until he was two. He was late cutting teeth. The pediatrician said “he’ll catch up”. By age three, a second opinion lead us to a series of tests to determine why Drew was so behind in his development. We had CT scans, EKG’s, MRI’s, so on and so forth….finally a neurologist in Miami said he has a gap in the firing of the electrodes’ that run through his brain effecting the cognitive processing for communication.
Fortunately Drew has always been a very happy person with a smile on his face most of the time. Even when he broke his arm he barely cried and didn’t show any signs of discomfort. He had fallen off of a playground merry go round. The teachers at the day care center said he fell, only cried for a few minutes, there was no blood or swelling, so they didn’t call us at work. We didn’t realize it was broken until I was bathing him that evening.
We have always wanted to do as much as we can for Drew to improve his speech and cognitive processes. The Exceptional Student Education (ESE) Department at his elementary school was working with Drew daily on sign language and some group speech therapy. At age 7 we entered Drew into a speech therapy program at the Boca Raton Community Hospital were he worked with a therapist on learning to communicate with a picture board. This was very costly so after more research we were directed to the FAU Education Department. Here he went through many months of one on one as well as group speech sessions. His progress remained slow, in many cases Drew made up his own words for things with he still uses today. “Gaddy” is Daddy, “Arw, arw” is our dog!
Twin Palms Center has been the best thing we have discovered for Drew. He has made so many friends, and has become much more expressive and confident. He has a longer attention span and can stay on task when asked to do something. He has increased interest in sports and Special Olympic events!
We pray everyday that Drew will talk, but knowing he is in a happy, safe environment every day gives us peace of mind. Thank You Twin Palms!!!
