New Member

[Guest guest]

Hi,

Thanks for letting me join your group. This sounds like a nice support group and support is what has been so lacking in my life, though it's much needed.

My name is Sherry. I am 42 years old. I'm married to (Big) Kenny, who is 57 years old and we have several really sweet cats and a 19-month-old miracle baby, (Little) Kenny. I lost my first baby when I was 23 years old. was born way too soon and died shortly after birth. I was told I'd never be able to get pregnant again and then all these years later it happened. I have diabetes type 2, so had to be very careful while pregnant. I was worried the whole time but am so glad everything worked out.

My baby was born healthy but unfortunately he inherited bilateral congenital cataracts from me and went blind soon after birth. His condition has been worse than mine because he's already had 5 eye surgeries. He can see but is legally blind. I am legally blind too and this makes keeping a close eye on my very active baby a challenge. Both of us have glaucoma. I've had it since I was 16 but the glaucoma is under good control. Little Kenny developed glaucoma at 7 months old and it's been very difficult finding the right medicines to control his eye pressure, as well as get the medicines in his eyes. He hates the eye medicine and cries so much, as well as fights it. He's on 2 different medicines, twice a day each and it's sad, frustrating and overwhelming fighting to get drops into his eyes 4 times each day. I hate putting him through that and it breaks my heart. With being legally blind, it's especially difficult for me to get the drops in his eyes. Big Kenny does the drops most of the time though. I have to do them mornings Mon-Fri while Big Kenny is working.

Big Kenny has had his own health issues to deal with. He had a stroke in January, which he's still trying to recover from. There was some damage to the cerebral cortex part of his brain, so there have been personality changes, most of which are really hard to take. I keep hoping his brain will heal but chances are I'll never have back the kind, thoughtful person I married. That's hard trying to get used to and fills me with sadness much of the time (I've suffered with depression for years). Also work is slow and we're barely getting by financially and so worried about the future.

My family haven't been supportive. Since I'm not able to drive, me and the baby really don't get to go anywhere, except for walks whenever the weather is decent, and Big Kenny will take us to the store on Saturdays. I do have some friends on line but some that I had "known" for years that I thought were my friends walked out on me when things got really bad.

Anyway, I hope my intro was OK and not too depressing. I look forward to meeting other members here. Oh, by the way, I have a web site for my son and always have the link in my signature line, in case any of you want to look at it and see pictures of my gorgeous little guy.

Sherryhttp://www.caringbridge.org/visit/babykenny