AJ Aukstikalnis

AJ is an amazing son and very special, he is well liked by everybody! He was a happy healthy normal 12 year old boy that loves to make people laugh, listening to music, playing sports especially soccer, basketball and football, hanging with his friends and his 10 year old sister Abigail and of course playing video games.

 In May of 2014 he started having severe headaches and was tired all the time he spent most of his summer in bed. Over that time he became very sensitive to sound and light; he could not even take a shower the sound was too loud for him.  He was first diagnosed with a concussion, with him not getting better the doctors took many blood tests all coming back negative, he was then diagnosed  with Post Concussion Syndrome and scheduled him for an MRI the following week.  That is when we discovered he had a Giant Aneurysm; which is rare especially for someone his age. We are so very lucky that his aneurysm was found and thankful that he had concussions which lead us to the path of having an MRI.

 We were referred to Albany Medical and Dr. Dalfino where AJ was hospitalized for two weeks and had 9 hours of brain surgery on September 5; he suffered  a stroke and lost the use of his left side, thankfully he has regained full use of his left side. AJ was put on anti-seizure and stroke medicine as well as blood thinners and steroids  he will have to be on them for a long time; possibly the rest of his life.  He has gone back to Albany several times since his surgery for more follow up procedures each time we have gone we did not know if he will need another surgery, thankfully he has not.   He will though need another surgery in about three months, which will have some risks involved with that one as well. AJ will have to monitored twice a year for the rest of his life with the possibility of even more procedures down the road.

AJ missed the first quarter of 7th grade due to the fact that he was recovering from his surgery which left him tired, drained and pretty much bed ridden for a month after his surgery.  He still gets tired very easy and cannot participate in gym or play sports; he may never be able to play sports again.

 He has just started the 2nd quarter of school with the help of a tutor and the school has acquired a robot for AJ to attend class from home which is so exciting for AJ it makes him feel like he is a part of school in a really cool way. He now uses the robot for his morning classes and tries to go to school in the afternoons when he feels up to it.

We are so thankful, appreciative to our family, friends,  Dr. Dalfino and all the staff at Albany Medical Center, the Delaware Academy and Central School District; Jason Thomson, Mrs. Alberti, Mr. Potrezeba for helping us get the robot up and running, Mrs. Sherman, Lisa Tuttle and the all the staff and teachers at our school and the wonderful town of Delhi NY that we live in thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for helping us through this and having our backs we could not make it through without the love and support of everyone! We are and always will be eternally grateful to everyone! I am a believer in miracles!!

 

 

 

 
 

   

Do you have extra cans and bottles? You can donate them to the PBJ. Drop them off at the Redemption Center at 459 Chestnut Street in Oneonta. 607-433-9750. Tell them that they are for the PBJ Kids!