Rosie was born in 2016 happy and healthy with no complications until she developed epilepsy at four months old.
Written by Katie and Nathan, Rosie’s parents
“Despite being on multiple, heavy doses of medication her seizures became worse. Rosie’s development began to slow, stop and eventually regress. She was diagnosed with profound developmental delay.
By 2018, Rosie could barely sit without wobbling, she cried almost all the time. Her muscles became weak, her eye contact was poor, she wouldn’t tolerate cuddles. She stopped playing and refused to touch anything other than her bottle and dummy.
It always felt like everyone was assessing Rosie, but no-one was actually helping her. We felt helpless watching our daughter disappear in front of our eyes. We were desperate to help her.
Private therapy was far too expensive, but we found out about Brainwave and had our first assessment in February 2018. We were made to feel so welcome and everything about Rosie’s Programme was explained very carefully.
It was the first time we had been able to sit back and observe Rosie and discuss her needs to find out how we can help with expert guidance from the physiotherapists. For the first time, we had a little hope for Rosie.
The exercises helped to strengthen her muscles, but her balance was so poor, it seemed impossible that she would ever walk unaided.
When we returned to Brainwave in May 2019, Rosie walked into the therapy room by herself! We used to have dreams about Rosie walking and wonder whether it would ever happen. We had planned how we would convert our house to allow ramps for a wheelchair, hoists and a stairlift for when Rosie became too heavy.
Rosie now chooses where she wants to go, she has freedom when before, she would be stuck in the same position she was sat in unless someone came to move her. We are even beginning to see improvement in her communication development.
She has begun to sign and bring us her bib to tell us she is hungry. She makes choices and has favourite toys, when before she wouldn’t play with anything.
Family, friends and staff at her school can’t believe the difference in her. She is so pleased with herself when she achieves something and sometimes giggles when she has been able to successfully communicate something to us.
This is a girl who wouldn’t smile for weeks at a time. We used to think she would probably never walk and almost certainly never be able to talk, but now we think she is capable of anything.”
With the right tools and expertise, a great deal of determination and hard work, we can believe in the impossible. That is what Brainwave has done for us!