Welcome to the In Support Of Caiden Ruiz blood drive!
Caiden’s Journey
Caiden is 2 years old. He is our sweetest and cuddliest little jokester. He was born with an extremely rare Hereditary Geniospasm, just like his big brother Carter, which is a movement disorder that causes episodes of involuntary tremors of the chin and lower lip. The disorder was passed on from his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. In June 2023, we noticed huge and lifted bruises on his knees and arms. I remember sitting in my car with tears in my eyes, my heart in my stomach, completely shaken up and heartbroken while he was taking a nap in the backseat. It was June 29, 2023, and I received a call from Caiden’s doctor’s office confirming his diagnosis that caused the lifted bruises.
My baby, at only 9 months old, was diagnosed with severe Hemophilia A, Factor VIII Deficiency, a bleeding disorder in which the ability of his blood to clot is severely reduced, causing severe bleeding from even the slightest injury. I felt so numb; I couldn’t stop crying from being so afraid. All that consumed my mind was the fact that my brother had Hemophilia. My brother passed away at 9 years old from complications. I was only 7; there was a lot I did not know about Hemophilia except that it took my big brother away. That same week, our lives completely changed forever. As an already extremely rare disorder, Geniospasm has an even rarer symptom of nocturnal tongue biting that only affects roughly 7% of those diagnosed with it. Days—it was only days apart from his Hemophilia diagnosis when Caiden started waking up in the middle of the night with the worst, painful cries with pools of blood on his crib mattress. We have never felt so helpless.
For a year, especially the first few months, Caiden was in and out of the hospital. Our lives turned into emergency room runs, hospital admissions, blood transfusions, and successful and many, many failed IV injections. There were many times I stared at my baby’s arms while he slept, tears filling my face–they were both filled with injection scars. There isn’t anything in this world I would not do for him. In all of those moments, I wanted to switch places with him, but there was nothing we could have done.
It has even gotten to a point where his hemoglobin levels fell to a life-threatening level. The nocturnal tongue biting became an occurrence multiple times a day. We have seen a total of 5 Neurologists with no answers. But despite the past year, we have more to be thankful for. Nocturnal tongue biting seems to be a thing of the past; his last episode was July 2, 2024. It has been a challenging journey and has caused immense pain for all of us; seeing him go through everything that he has made me appreciate all the little things and milestones reached.
Caiden’s last hospital admission in March 2024, just before we welcomed his baby sister Caiya, was 14 days long, where he received a total of 11 blood transfusions. Other people’s blood saved my baby’s life, so when I decided I wanted to dedicate some of my time to a way of giving back, hosting a blood drive made the most sense. When I started sharing this blood drive event with family and friends, the support we received was overwhelming. The community and strangers are reaching out to me, willing to come together to help us save lives, and I could not be more thankful, excited, and determined to help make this event very successful.
My son’s diagnoses are a part of him that we are still learning about and still learning to accept. It will be a long road that we’ll have to navigate, but we have each other through life’s joys and challenges, ups and downs. I have vowed to raise all my children with determination, fearlessness, need for excitement, and resilience because that’s what Caiden taught me.
Blood Drive Details
Paw Factory
17532 Valley Blvd.,
Bloodmobile
Bloomington, CA 92316
Directions
Sunday, March 16, 2025
12:00 pm to 05:00 pm
To schedule an appointment, click date above, call 800-879-4484 or download the LifeStream mobile app!
Patients need your help.
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