Tyra Stewart

My Photos

Tyra 1 day Old

Tyra 2 weeks old

Tyra 3 months old

HEAVEN'S SPECIAL CHILD
By Edna Massimilla

A meeting was held quite far from earth,
It’s time again for another birth.
Said the angels to the Lord above;

This special child will need much love
His progress may be very slow,
Accomplishments he may not show.
And he’ll require extra care,
From the folks he meets down there,

He may not run or laugh or play,
His thoughts may seem quite far away.
In many ways he won’t adapt, and he’ll
Be known as handicapped.

So let’s be careful where he is sent, we want
His life to be content.

Please, Lord, find the good friends who, will
Do a special job for you.

They will not realize it right away, the leading
Role they’re asked to play.
But with this child sent from above, comes
Stronger faith and richer love.
And soon they will know the privileges given,
In caring for their gift from Heaven.
Their precious charge, so meek and mild, in

Heaven’s very special child.

"Tyra"

2 years old

Tyra's Story

When I was 9 months pregnant with her we found out that she was breeched. So the following week I had her by c-section on 5-20-05. While I was pregnant we knew of nothing wrong, we thought that we were having a normal, healthy little girl. I remember them asking my husband if they should let me see her before they took her to NICU. He said of course. When I saw her I was happy but confused.

She was only 5lbs at full term, her knees were bent upwards instead of backwards. Since the surgery took place at 7:30 that night I didn't get to speak to the doctors or see her till the next morning. They told me that she had a cleft palate, a vsd, a small chin, small head, small brain, large ventricles in her brain, webbed toes, she had strabismus, her knees were dislocated and so were her hips. I was so lost in what they were all saying. They said that they would do some test but they thought that she had a chromosome defect. So a couple of days later we go home and everything seem relatively normal. Then at her 2 week visit we found out that she had Cri-du-chat Syndrome and that she had also lost a full pound and had a temperature of 90.2. So they rushed us to Cooks Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. She was admitted for hypothermia. We spent one week in ICU with her eating through a tube in her nose. Then when she was put into a recovery room for 2 weeks, Dr. Heeded came to us and explained our options. He said that we could continue feeding her through the tube in her nose, have a g-button placed, or take her home and let nature take its place. I was so upset that letting her die was even an option, of course we chose the g-button. She had surgery on her knees, cleft palate, eyes, and ear tubes placed all within her first year.

Later we found out that she had acid reflux, had no gag reflex, aspirated, and had swallow dysfunction. Somehow most of these problems just kind of went away. She doesn’t aspirate that much, she doesn’t have acid reflux but she still spits up, she can somewhat swallow on her own, and I assure you that she has a gag reflex because once she starts sucking on her thumb after a while she gags herself and throws up! She is 21/2 right now. She has 11 doctors and specialist and also receives 5 different types of therapy twice a month. She only weighs 18lbs but is 33 inches long, she is barely into a size 3 shoe and her hair isn’t very long. She has a mental and physical capacity of in between a 7-10 month old. She will only eat a couple of bites of bananas before she gets too tired and falls asleep. Other than that she receives all her meals through her g-button. She can sit up and roll over but that is all. She can’t speak yet and barely babbles. She has a 3 year old sister that has helped her through so much. We have a lot of people that support us and help us through our rough spots. We are so very grateful!