Jared W. - Quilt Finished in 2008

Born: March 29, 1998

Illness: Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Jared's Story

Written by Jared's mom in May 2007

Jared was born March, 29, 1998.  He was the best baby and hardly ever cried. He had such a sweetness about him. He reached all of the milestones right on schedule so we had no indication that there was a problem.  He walked on his toes a lot but we never thought anything was wrong. He had extremely large calf muscles that people commented on frequently but we just thought is was from walking on his toes.  In 2004 his first grade teacher told us Jared was having difficulty walking and kind of waddled when he walked.  She suggested we take him to his doctor and see if we could get him into physical therapy.  His doctor looked at him and said he wanted to do a blood test to see if everything was okay.  On October 11 2004 our lives were changed forever.  We got the devastating news that our precious little boy had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  We had no idea what that was and we were completely shocked to find out. No treatment and no cure.

He continued to walk and it became more and more difficult as time went on.  He started having frequent falls in 2005 so we got him a wheelchair to use periodically.  When 3rd grade started in August of 2006 he needed to use it most of the day because we were afraid he would hurt himself by falling.  On September 20 2006 he walked to the car and I took him to school.  When he got home he walked in the house and fell down and never walked again.  He has been confined to a wheelchair ever since.

We are all trying to remain positive and just make the most out of every day and just take things one day at a time.  He remains the sweet little boy that he always was. Our little sweet pea.