Story
Name
Brayson Jens
Injury/Illness
Birth Defect
My husband (Steve) and I have three children, two of which have medical complexities and special needs. Our oldest son, (8) has a visual impairment, autism, a migraine condition, among various sensory and processing diagnoses/difficulties. Our daughter (6) will be having some assessments this summer for autism and other neuropsychology evaluations to determine why she has executive functioning difficulties. Our youngest son, (3) Brayson has had some struggles with various things since birth. He has dysphagia, gait difficulties, muscle and motor control difficulties, motor activity and planning difficulties, and breathing and sleeping difficulties. He had a brain MRI three weeks ago, after several other tests, that found a brain malformation. He is currently inpatient after brain surgeries this week (5/6/19). This has been something of a shock to our family both financially and emotionally. We are hopeful that this will help problem solve many of the serious difficulties that Brayson has. I am a student and stay at home mom trying to make sure that our children are cared for with having two children with special needs and medical complexities. My husband works full time and travels frequently in order to have a higher paycheck. Having our son in the hospital after many tests, as well as several other financial setbacks has put our finances in a tough position. My husband is only taking one week off for Brayson’s surgery but is out of paid time off. He also does not get his travel pay because that is a separate part of his paycheck. Any financial help/assistance would be greatly appreciated, and would take a large amount of stress off of us.