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| Brandon's Cause |
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| Little Hoosiers Count Too! |
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| My Name is Brandon | |
^F Hi, I'm Brandon. I’m 5 years old. I live with my Grandma and my Grandpa. We live in Indiana. I was born in Valparaiso Indiana in 1995. I was pretty sick when I was born. Grandma say’s I was addicted to Vicoden. I had to stay in the hospital with all the little babies, for a month. But I was good as new when I came home. I never knew my daddy. He lived far away. He was a policeman and was killed when I was two months old. I had lots of pictures of him and even got to go meet all his friends where he worked. Everyone told me he was a hero. I think he was too, because he stopped the bad guy robbers. I started pre-school at Montessori Academy when I was two years old. I learned a lot of neat things and I really liked my friends and teachers. I started in the toddler class. Things went pretty good until the end of the year. Grandma has bipolar and got really sick. She had to go to the hospital five times. My teacher was having a really hard time with me; I started kicking and hitting and not doing what I was told. The school didn’t want to tell Grandma and Grandpa because they knew she was sick and thought I might behave better when she came home. That summer things got pretty bad. Grandma and Grandpa took me to a child psychologist and psychiatrist. They said I had ADHD and probably bipolar. My grandma, mom and uncle all have it. They started me on some medicine. It worked for awhile but it always quits working. We went to a special school and they said I could stay at Montessori but they would help my teacher learn how to correct my behavior. My teacher worked real hard with me that year. I did pretty well with one person. My medicine would stop working and they would change it or add more. I think I took three medicines at one time. We tried every kind thing the doctors told us about: 1-2-3 Magic, time outs, restrictions, rewards, redirecting. We even tried brushing my arms with a scrub brush (I think that was called Sensory Integration). We went to doctors, therapists, pediatricians (by the way, I have the best in the world – his name is Dr. Ludwig and he takes good care of me). Someone came to our house and tried to teach my grandparents how to train me (kind of like Pavlov’s dog, I think). One doctor told my grandparents to build a quiet room in my bedroom so that it would be safe and they could restrain me – they said absolutely not. By this time I was pretty much out of control. I wouldn’t do anything people asked me to do. I got real mean and threatened to hurt people, I cussed and I wouldn’t stay in time out – I even started hurting my dog, Gizmo and he is my best pal in the world. We decided I needed to go to another school, one that is real structured. I had a real nice teacher there but I missed my friends at Montessori. Things went pretty good at that school. I got to ride a big school bus and I liked the bus driver and the aid. They were real friendly. Things weren’t going too good at home or at my aunts or my friends. I just couldn’t seem to play like the other kids. I ran around all the time and I couldn’t keep still. I got pretty mean and had a hard time controlling myself. Then I started acting up a little on the school bus. Grandma and I would lie in bed at night and I would tell her I just didn’t know why I did the things I did. Sometimes I could hardly lie still in the bed long enough to fall asleep. Sometimes Grandma would cry. She knew I couldn’t help myself and Grandpa knew it too. We would play real pretty music in my room; that would help me get control. Sometimes they blamed themselves. The doctors always said it wasn’t their fault but I’m not sure Grandma believed them. The doctors always said it could be a lot of things; my family has a lot of bipolar and depression, I was addicted to drugs, maybe my daddy dying made it worse, or my mom not always being there or maybe Grandma and Grandpa had a hard time taking care of me. It could even be some of all those things. Things got so bad that my Grandparents had to put me in the hospital far away so they could watch me and try to fix my medicine. That was the first time I was ever away from Grandma and Grandpa – I was pretty scared for awhile. I was there for about a week and then I got to go home. I didn’t get to stay home very long. I had to go in the hospital four times in five months. I didn’t even get to finish school with my friends. Some doctors said it was one thing, some said it we another. One doctor even told me that if I misbehaved anymore, I could never go home again. That was really scary. I guess he didn’t know I was sick and couldn’t help myself (that’s probably why grandma and grandpa didn’t like him very much). They said I had bipolar; ADHD, OCD, ODD PTSD, and IED – lot of stuff for a little kid, don’t you think? Finally, I had to go to a hospital about three hours away. There isn’t any place I can go during the day to help make me better and there aren't any hospitals I can go stay at that are closer to our house. I think Indiana doesn’t do those things for little kids. Grandma and Grandpa can only see me every other week because it is so far away. I really miss them, too. It’s a pretty nice place, I guess. But I would rather be home with my family. We are going to miss the whole summer together. Grandma won’t be able to take my picture in front of our tree when kindergarten starts (we do that every year on the first day of school). I have to stay here a long time. I hope I can come home for Christmas and my birthday. I can’t see my favorite cousin but her mom sends me pictures of her. Grandma and Grandpa promise me I will get to come home but they don’t know when. We went to see the Judge yesterday. He was a nice man. He said Grandma and Grandpa don’t have to lose custody so we can afford for me to go to this hospital. He said the court would have wardship, whatever that means. The best part is we can still get our adoption. The hospital even said they would bring me down so I could be there. I hope we can have a party. I guess I just said a lot about me. Maybe there are some people out there who can change the laws so this doesn’t have to happen to other little kids. Five-year-olds should be home with their mom and dads and playing with their dog and catching fireflies in the summer and making snowmen in the winter. I know I’m gonna miss those things. . . |
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| Hobart | IN | 46342 |
 brandonscause1@aol.com |
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