Mark Henry Update

Dearest friends and family,

It's been a while since we shared an update on Mark Henry. He is a happy, thriving 8 year old who is finishing 2nd grade! He loves to be outdoors riding his bike and spending time with Izzy his sister who he adores. He will be participating in miracle league baseball and swimming lessons this summer.

 

Mark Henry had major surgery July 2013, selective nerves were cut in his spine to release the spasticity in his legs enabling him to get out of a wheelchair and walk. This was followed by a year of physical therapy and then orthopedic surgery Oct 2015 to straighten his legs and help him walk better. Hardware was removed Oct 2016 and with lots of PT and determination he's walking even stronger now and much straighter and taller!  He even learned to ski this winter! He is doing so well however his growth means his adaptive bike that we found used several years ago is too small!

 

He also had a feeding tube placed just over a year ago to help him with calorie intake and growth. He still eats meals and snacks but requires so many calories it was hard to keep him growing. Since we started supplementing him via the tube he's grown 3 inches and gained over 5 lbs!

 

He's very fortunate to have good medical insurance thru my work and also we buy additional supplemental insurance (at a high cost of over $6,000 a year which keeps increasing) thru the state Medicaid.  (Despite the expense it is important for us and we really hope that is not cut by big government decisions). However, neither insurance covers equipment like bikes and chairs and any special needs equipment is pretty expensive. Bikes start at $1500 and the chairs start at $650.

Here's where you come in, many of you often may ask how can we help? Any small donation you could give would help towards our goal of getting him a new bike that he can ride this summer and several years to come as they do adjust. We also need a chair that supports him for feeding times, now that he is so tall a typical high chair just doesn't fit or do the job.

This link is setup thru adaptivemall and you can click thru and give as you wish. They help families like us setup a page to "pool" funds and then we can order what is needed.

http://www.adaptivemall.com/markr.html

Once we meet our goal we can order the equipment they don't take anything out for fees which is great.

 

Thank you! We really appreciate all the support thru the years from all our friends and family.

Best wishes and have a great summer!

Emma and Mark Roeske