Victor's Journey: Sharing Victor's Journey with a Wake Forest University Medical School Class

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Sharing Victor's Journey with a Wake Forest University Medical School Class

Victor's wonderful Geneticist, Dr. Tamison Jewett, asked us to share Victor's journey with her class of first year medical students from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. In the photo, Dr. Jewett is on the left, and Lori Terry, our fabulous genetic counselor, is on the right.

Today Theresa presented Victor's story to a class of approximately 120 students. It was Paul's first day of teaching his Spring Semester Computer Science courses at WFU, and so he wasn't able attend (although he really wanted to!). It was a memorable experience to speak to this group of future physicians, and share with them our experiences of discovering Victor's diagnosis, and of interacting with the medical community. We also played the slide show from our previous post during the presentation. The students listened carefully and asked some great questions during the presentation. After the talk several more of them came to chat with us after class.

It was very rewarding to have this chance to share about our precious son, and to know that others may gain insight and knowledge from Victor's journey. Thank you so much Dr. Jewett and the WFU medical students for giving us this remarkable opportunity.

Our Vision

We wish to develop a large community of friends around Victor who:

Allow themselves to be filled with the joy that Victor stirs within people who get to know him for whom he really is: a happy child rejoicing in the smallest things of life, reminding everyone to live for the moment,
Accept the differences brought by people and children with special needs as an integral part of society,
Understand the challenges people and children like Victor face and are willing to be advocates for their needs, and
Want to help make a difference in other people's lives by sponsoring research into rare diseases like Pitt Hopkins syndrome.

Victor's Story

This is Victor, our precious son. Our names are Theresa and Paul. Victor was born in August of 2005. He has a deletion of Chromosome 18q 21.2 – 21.32 / Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome. We also have two wonderful older girls who are typically developing. Our family lives in North Carolina, USA.

Victor is a very happy child, who loves to meet and interact with everyone–a true extrovert. He has dysphagia, which is a swallowing disorder, and has to have his liquids thickened to a honey consistency. Victor has asthma and has been hospitalized many times due to viral respiratory infections. He also has severe food allergies to nuts, dairy, eggs, and kiwi. Victor sometimes holds his breath for a few seconds when he doesn’t seem to be feeling well or is very tired. Victor has developmental disabilities. He rolled over at 9-10 months, sat at 11 months, crawled/bunny hopped at 14 months, stood alone at almost 2 years old, took his first steps at 2, and began walking independently at about 2 1/2 years old. He wears custom orthotic inserts in his shoes to provide proper alignment and added support when walking. He has a little bit of an ataxic gait pattern, and needs help with curbs and stairs.

Victor is very curious, and investigates all things in his environment. His receptive language is much more advanced than his expressive language —he can understand much of what you say to him, but currently is not speaking yet. Pointing has helped Victor tremendously to let us know what he wants and to make choices, and he is beginning to use some signs, putting 2-3 signs together at a time. He also uses a communication app developed by his Daddy for the iPhone/iPad, called Verbal Victor, with much success! We help him learn new things through prompting, repetition, and redirection. Victor loves listening to music, looking at books, playing with tops, watching favorite videos, using the iPad, playing outside, swinging, kicking a soccer ball, going down a slide, pedaling his tricycle and many other things–he enjoys everything that life has to offer! He is a joy and an inspiration to us all!