016: There is Power in Choice & Knowledge!

I had the pleasure of speaking with Marissa Brooke Donnell on my podcast and I'm sharing her story, the story of her family, her puppies and background on life. And there's so much powerful information here!
Here's a little sneak peek from Marissa herself:
"I know you all know Talon’s vaccine injury/autism story. But many of you who I’ve befriended over the last year may not know the obstacles Talon overcame before during and after all of that.

At my 20 week ultrasound, we found out Talon would be born with Fibular Hemimelia and Congenital Femoral Deficiency. His right leg had a fibula the size of a pin, his tibia and femur were shorter than the left, he had no ACL in his knee and no ankle bone. Many kids with these conditions are born with less than 5 toes and hip issues too but Talon thankfully escaped both of those.

From 12 months old to 4 years old, he had a total of 10 surgeries. 3 of which were planned/correctional surgeries. The other 7 were due to bone infections that stemmed from the surgeries. We’ve spent many many nights/weeks in hospital rooms. We’ve had to watch him roll into the OR more times than I’d like. But despite it all, he goes through life smiling and does not let his leg slow him down.

Originally, he was predicted to have a 12-14 cm length discrepancy at full maturity which would mean 2-3 leg lengthening surgeries. But by the grace of God, we’re only looking at a 3-5 cm discrepancy and 1 lengthening surgery OR a shortening of the other leg. We’re not sure why it went down so much (that’s not usually the case), but because of his autism he really doesn’t do well in the hospital so we are eternally grateful.

I’ve recently learned that kids with MTHFR should not have laughing gas before surgery and he’s had it at least 4-5 times. 2 times before his autism diagnosis, so could also be a contributing factor (as well as the anesthesia, antibiotics, crap food, etc).

Our 4.5 years with him so far have been an absolute roller coaster, but he has taught us patience, he has taught us how to stay positive in shitty situations and above all, his conditions have taught us to advocate for ourselves and our kids when we have a gut feeling that a doctor is wrong."

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