Cody’s Story: A Reason To Smile
Lion # 107
When Cody first arrived on this earth, he was a beautiful baby boy, but his lungs had extra fluids on them, so he spent the first few days of his life in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. I longed those first few days to hold my beautiful baby, and cringed every time he got another shot, tube or machine hooked to his little body. I cried and cried every time I went to see him. After a few blessings, our miracle happened and he was able to go home just two days later.
Cody grew to be a normal, happy, healthy, full-of-life little boy. When Cody was exactly 3 years and 8 months old, something strange happened. He was riding in the car and he jolted out of his seat. He was disoriented, then really scared. I rushed him to the doctor. They couldn’t explain what it was, so they assumed I was just a worried Mom and sent me home. I knew something wasn’t right. As the days went on, these “episodes” increased. I continued to go to the doctors searching for answers. He would be walking and fall to the ground without warning, but still no answers. He progressively got worse until he was continually shaking. He couldn’t hardly eat, walk or talk. He could smile though, and he did often. I remember one night when he was trying to eat a fruit snack. He must have dropped it 10 times before it made it to his mouth. He never gave up and smiled through it all.
After a grueling and long 3 months, we found that Cody had a rare seizure disorder that at times caused him to have 10-15 seizures per second. His little body would start to respond to meds then stop, we continued switching medicines and tried lot of treatments, until one day I had an impression that he could have food allergies. We had him tested and found that these were very severe. After changing his diet, the seizures came only occasionally over the next six months.
To celebrate his progress, and Cody’s long journey with seizures, we took him to Disneyland for his 5th birthday. (He loved Donald Duck and any big, fast, scary, ride). I remember on his birthday having cake and him spreading the frosting all over his face and saying “HO! HO! HO!” He was always trying to make us laugh. The night we arrived home, I will never forget. We read scriptures and said prayers with the boys. After our nightly routine we said goodnight. Cody gave his little brother (3) a great big hug tackling him to the ground and saying “I love you brother.” We all exchanged hugs and “I love you’s” then put the boys to bed. As we left their room that night, Cody yelled out “goodnight and good luck”. We laughed and went to bed.
The following morning, Cody had a seizure that caused him to stop breathing. It was a stormy, cold day. When they whisked him off in the ambulance I knew this was it. It took them 45 minutes to get his heart working, but the rest of his body was shutting down, and he was completely brain dead. We knew Cody had accomplished everything he needed to in this life and was ready to go to the next. I will never forget the devastation and complete heartbreak I felt, but also the comfort and knowledge that we would see him again and everything would be O.K. Cody was able to save another little girl’s life by being a heart donor.
The next days, weeks, months, and now years have been very hard. It has now been almost 3 years since Cody passed away. Although I miss him dearly, every day my heart is healing and I think of how many lessons I learned through these experiences and especially from Cody. The thing I learned the most from our sweet angel was that when times are tough we can always find something to smile about, someone to make laugh and something to be thankful for. He taught me to not concentrate on the bad and hard things in life but to look for the good. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a mother to an angel. I know that God lives and loves us and will help us through our trials, and that I will see my perfect little boy again!
-Angie, mother of Cody
For more information about organ donation, please visit www.idslife.org
