“A diagnosis isn’t limiting, people are.”
Meghan King marked World Cerebral Palsy Day by revealing her 2-year-old son Hart was diagnosed with Hypotonic Cerebral Palsy earlier this week.
The “Real Housewives of Orange County” alum previously opened up about the irreversible brain damage her youngest with ex Jim Edmonds last summer — and, on her blog Tuesday, gave her followers an update about his condition.
After providing background about Hart’s behavior as an infant, King said she “knew something was atypical” about her son from the moment he was born. An MRI confirmed he had Periventricular Leukomalacia.
“I wanted to tell you all of this before I tell you this: yesterday Hart was diagnosed with Hypotonic Cerebral Palsy,” she wrote. “I was expecting this diagnosis. Even though he’s the same kid I expected it to hit me hard. But it didn’t. It didn’t hit me hard at all. In fact I felt relieved.”
“Think about it this way: it was as mundane as going through life every day without putting the lid on the toothpaste and then finally, I got to put the lid on,” she explained. “That’s how simple and right it felt … This is the once dreadful diagnosis I knew was coming since that fateful day I googled the right thing and it hit me like a truck: CP. I knew it was CP since Hart was a few months old. I just knew.”
Saying she “threw myself into researching treatments” once she got the PVL diagnosis, King explained how Hart has been through “intensive therapy” and 12 weeks of oxygen chamber “dives,” which has helped his muscles become “less stiff” over time.
“The therapy worked! Which is proof why early intervention is incredibly necessary for anyone who even suspects something might be atypical,” she said. “If I hadn’t advocated for Hart he would’ve lost 16 months of therapy until he got his CP diagnosis.”
Looking forward, King said the CP diagnosis “really means nothing different and changes nothing,” adding that it “just allows him to continue receiving the therapy he’s already getting.”
She wrote that her son will still have a “full, independent life,” writing that “a diagnosis isn’t limiting, people are.”
By sharing the news on World Cerebral Palsy Day, King said she hopes her son will “inspire others with a ‘diagnosis’ not to hide it for fear of judgement but to wear it as a badge of honor, a source of pride for all the hard work he’s accomplished that most of us will never understand.”
“Hart earned this very special 1 out of 500 diagnosis just in the nick of time to celebrate,” she added. “And celebrate we will!”
