Desperate Housewives: Spotlights Stroke in Children
I watch Desperate Housewives religiously every Sunday; it’s fun drama. Usually, I do not relate to many of scenarios or any of the housewives on the show, but tonight, there was a scenario that struck a chord with me.
Lynette, a housewife, was carrying a potentially brain injured twin due to falling to the ground and the placenta tearing from the uterus, limiting the blood flow to the child’s brain. Although there was medical intervention available to save the baby, the doctors could not say for certain how physically and mentally affected the child would be. Just as the team were pushing Lynette to the OR, she fell into a dream, imagining what it would be like to raise a disabled child.
She envisions herself fourteen months into the child’s life breaking down during a physical therapy session as her child screams during his stretches meant to keep him from getting too tight which could damage the development of his limbs. She wondered if anything they were doing for him was working or worth trying. The therapist reminds her to focus on her son’s progress and not compare him to other children his age. She then envisions that child more than a decade later walking into her kitchen with the assistance of a cane, his right hand in a fist, and tucked into an L shape at his side as he asks for a sandwich. She forces him to make his own if he wanted one because she wanted him to learn to be independent even if it pained her to see her son struggle; with one hand weaker than he other, he did not have the same dexterity as his dominant hand, so opening the bread bag was even difficult for him; silverware clattered to the ground, he dropped his cane. Eventually, though, he did it–he made his own sandwich. A decade or so later, the boy is at his law school graduation ceremony thanking his mom for pushing him to live beyond his physical limitations because as he quotes Mahatma Gandhi,
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
I couldn’t stop watching, and I did not want that very moment to end. The portrayal of the mother and child were so accurate, I saw a bit of me and lots of Justin in those characters. I saw and felt hope for Justin.
Lynette woke from that dream to learn that her baby didn’t make it. I felt heartbroken and thankful. Heartbroken because I had hoped the producers would introduce and maintain a character with physical disability to the show which would create awareness about many issues: strokes in children, family life struggles, the child’s struggles and triumphs. I mean, there is so much potential for drama there, no? 
Secondly, I was thankful because I have Justin. Even with the heartache and hardships we’ve endured together as a family, and I as a mother, and he with all his physical pain, I would never wish we never had him. Giving him the chance at life even when the prognosis was poor (according to one perinatologist) and being granted that power to carry his life means everything. I don’t have to live my days in a dream like Lynette wondering the what ifs, because I know.
My brother, after watching the show with my sister, asked me if Justin would be like that boy he saw on TV, if he’d walk and carry himself the same way. My answer is, “I don’t know.” Whether or not he’ll need a cane or any type of equipment for mobility in the future is really for the future to tell, although it is a possibility. Will his right hand ever be the same as the left? That, I know for sure, is no. He will not be able to use his right hand in the same way as the left, but I hope that it will become his “helper” hand to assist in things like holding down a piece of paper or carrying things with two hands/arms. And, yes, some of the things he does and will do will look funny and different to you and I. In the end, though, gaining his independence and living a fulfilling life is our goal.