RHOC star Meghan King’s son Hart, 2, diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy but insists he will live a ‘full, independent life’
MEGHAN King revealed her two-year-old son, Hart, has been diagnosed Cerebral Palsy but insists he will live a "full, independent" life.
The alum admitted she “knew” it was the congenital disorder before doctors confirmed it in a that gave fans an .
She prefaced the information by stating she "knew" something was "atypical" from the .
“He cried so much even the nurses didn’t know how to soothe him. And he suckled on my breast shallow and often. His limbs were stiff.
“He was easily startled. He learned to focus his eyes later than Hayes.
“He grew at a typical rate and laughed on time and played with toys, but I just knew something was different,” she wrote on her website.
She continued: “All the doctors and therapists told me I was just being an overly cautious mother. I thought I was losing my mind, but I insisted upon an MRI.
“That MRI confirmed a diagnosis of Periventricular Leukomalacia or PVL which is brain death caused by lack of oxygen. This is often a precursor diagnosis to Cerebral Palsy.”
, 36, went on to say she “threw herself” into research and even spoke with doctors in Chile, Panama, and Egypt.
The reality star described the lengths she went to for : “I spent 6 weeks in Los Angeles with Hart doing intensive therapy.
“I spent 4 weeks in New Orleans going into an oxygen chamber with him every day.
“I continued the oxygen therapy in St Louis for an additional 8 weeks for a total of 60 “dives”.
“I tried (and failed) to get him into a stem cell study at Duke using his sister’s cord blood. I got him signed up with the Missouri state program, First Steps, to do every type of therapy available.”
She said all of this was done between his second and first birthdays.
However, the reality star revealed Hart’s physical progress has “somewhat plateaued” which has been “disheartening” for her as a mother.
The doctors then discovered the specific form of CP Hart is being treated for: “Yesterday Hart was diagnosed with Hypotonic Cerebral Palsy.
“I was expecting this diagnosis. I expected it to hit me hard even though he’s the same kid.
“But it didn’t. It didn’t hit me hard at all. In fact I felt relieved.
“Think about it this way: it was as mundane as going through life every day without putting the lid on the toothpaste and then finally, I got to put the lid on. That’s how simple and right it felt.”
Meghan said she “knew” this “dreadful diagnosis” was coming “since that fateful day I googled the right thing and it hit me like a truck: CP.”
“I knew it was CP since Hart was a few months old. I just knew,” she added.
However, the proud mama stated that CP - which is a motor disability affecting movement and muscle tone - “means nothing different and changes nothing.”
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She ended on an optimistic note: “Hart will live a full, independent life. He will face challenges his siblings won’t, but they will face challenges he won’t, we just don’t know what those are yet.
“My hope is that Hart can inspire others with a “diagnosis” not to hide it for fear of judgement but to wear it as a badge of honor, a source of pride for all the hard work he’s accomplished that most of us will never understand.”
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In addition to Hart, Hayes, 2, and , with her ex-husband .