Hi, my name is Laurie. I am not a member of sbanc, but I have a
child with Spina bifida. I was looking at your web site and saw the
link to the yahoo groups so thought I would check it out.

My daughter is 15 and was born in Rochester Ny. We were very active
in a local chapter of sba for many years. I served as a board member
and went to national conference as group rep once. We have lived in
north carolina for 8 years and never became active in any group.

My daughter had a mylemenigocele in the lumbar area, but has been
physically affected very little. She has some loss of feeling in her
toes of her left foot and her ankles are weak and easily sprain. But
she walks without the aid of anything. She had afo's when she was a
toddler to learn to walk. She walked at about 20 mo. She has mild
to moderate hydrocephalus but does not have a shunt. When she was
little she got lasix and diamox to control it then they weaned her
off of it. I think the doctors here think she should have had a
shunt at birth. She has a learning disablility in math and school in
general has been a struggle for her.

To complicate matters she was in a serious car accident in May in
which she sustained a brain injury. She had bleeding into the
ventricles and damage to her frontal an temporal lobes. This has
complicated her learning issues.

She has bowel and bladder control, but has always had urinary
urgency. It is harder for her to hold it for long if she has to go.
This became worse after the accident. At first she had no control,
but it has gradually come back an she is almost back to where she was
before the accident in this matter.

I also have a college freshman and a five yr old kindergartener.

Laurie