Hello, my name is Kim. I am a mother to 4 great children, 3 boys ages 8, 6, and 5, and one girl age 4. This wish is for a cooling vest for my 5-year-old son.

Josh has a seizure disorder, heart condition, and global development delays. His most recent diagnosis has been the most troubling for us - anhidrosis (inability of the body to sweat). It can be genetic or caused by things like medication or burns. Josh's is genetic, his grandmother also had this condition. There are no effective treatments, so we have to learn to manage.

To give you an idea of how it affects Josh... He can overheat in the middle of winter if dressed too warm, or in just a long sleeve shirt and pants if a building is too warm. It doesn't take the sun to overheat him, but being in the sun will speed it up. His face flushes to various shades of red and purple. He tells me that his face hurts when this happens, and he gets a horrible headache. It can take him a couple hours to be back to normal.

It is scary to watch this happen. A heat stroke would be horrible for anyone, but more so for him with his heart condition and neurological problems (dr's think there is more going on than seizures, testing to find out). My sweet boy deals with so much and doesn't let it slow him down. He is a typical little boy that likes to play hard and loves being outside. We already know that he and his siblings are going to be severely limited on their outside playtime this summer. They'll learn to adapt.

My biggest concern is that we may not be able to keep him cool inside. We live in Colorado, where, like a lot of people, we don't have air conditioning. Weather forecasters are saying we are in for a very hot summer. I don't know what we are supposed to do to keep him cool without a cooling vest, and we can't afford $225 right now. We are usually okay, but right now we just don't have it. If there is an angel or angels that can help with this, we would be so grateful.

Wish Info

• Posted: May 15, 2012 8:54 am
  Granted: Jun 11, 2012

• Member: sweetlittleboy
• Member Since: May 14, 2012
• Hero: 1 time
• Wishes Granted: 1 time

• Raised: $0.00 Goal: $225.00
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• City: Colorado Springs
• State: Colorado
• Country: United States

• Type: Need
• Wish is for: Child
• Category: Medical & Healthcare
• Cause: Cognitive or Learning Disabilities

• Views: 450
• Comments: 15
• Follows: 0