Remember John from last week? I posted the beginning of his story. Today, on the last day of Vaccine Injury Awareness Month, his mom shares an update to let us know where he is, sixteen years later. (If you have not read John’s story, you should read Part One and Part Two first, so you can appreciate how far he has come.)

Cheryl has one last thing for you to know before you read her story. She says, “This year both a neurologist in one state and a developmental psychologist in another, without either consulting with the other, both said John was not autistic at all. Both agreed he had suffered a vaccine injury that resulted in brain swelling and encephalitis resulting in the loss of acquired skills, leaving him permanent brain damaged. What we see and deal with today is the result of that brain injury. It’s a victory to hear such, and yet still a stab in the heart.”  

Now grab a tissue and read how John has gone from where he was in Part One and Two to where he is today.

A couple of months ago my baby turned nineteen. This is the last year of his teen years and I am starting to realize, I am no longer thirty something. I think that for a long time, I have lived my life in a strange form of twilight nowhere land, waiting for my life to become normal again. I did that because I was waiting for John to be, well, John again.

You see, I see my son as two people. The child he was born to be and the child he became. John, was vaccine damaged as a tot and went from normal, speaking in complete 3-5 word sentences, asking and answering questions to a non-verbal, deaf-like individual with physical and health issues. I used to call him my breathing blob of humanity as there was nothing about him that was normal. Oh he looked pretty, very china doll like with his very pale skin and glass eyes that stared in a fixed position, but the life you expect in a child, just was not there.

Once you hit pit bottom there is just nowhere to go but up. Continue reading →