12-year-old to undergo brain surgery

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PANCAKE BREAKFAST

Today will bring another benefit event for Wyatt Miller and his family. A pancake breakfast will be held from 8 a.m. until about 2 p.m. at the CETA Hall, 6565 County Road 612 NE, about 10 miles east of Kalkaska. Call 384-1967 for more information.

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Special to the Record-Eagle

April 25, 2010

Wyatt Miller is one of the bravest kids around

BY SHERI McWHIRTER Record-Eagle The Record Eagle Sun Apr 25, 2010, 08:10 AM EDT

KALKASKA — Wyatt Miller will undergo brain surgery in just over two weeks, and he's not looking forward to it.

"I'm scared, really," said Wyatt, 12, as he picked up and held his family's pet cat. "I'm just going to pray about everything I care about."

Doctors diagnosed Wyatt with an arteriovenous malformation, or AVM, after it ruptured and caused a stroke while he slept March 8 at his family's Kalkaska County home. Surgeons will operate May 12, hoping to correct the AVM, likely a birth defect.

The ordeal threw Wyatt's family into turmoil, though overwhelming community response soon followed: cards, letters, e-mails, prayers and hugs.

"It's just knowing people care enough to want to help that's very comforting," said Amy Miller, Wyatt's mother.

More than 600 attended a benefit dinner and silent auction last weekend in Kalkaska, when thousands were raised to help the family with expenses.

Amy Miller took a leave of absence from work to stay with Wyatt during his downstate hospital stay, coming surgery and expected long recovery. That leaves Wyatt's father, Dwayne "Buck" Miller, as the sole financial provider with his sales job.

The Millers have health insurance that will cover 90 percent of Wyatt's costly medical bills, but they must pay the rest along with travel expenses to take him both to surgery and physical therapy sessions three times each week.

"We want it to be over yesterday, but we know it's not," Amy Miller said.

"The surgeon is very confident he can go in and fix it and be done with it," Dwayne Miller said.

In the meantime, Wyatt is trying to be a normal kid.

He's back at school two half-days a week and loves to play a flight simulator game on his computer. He felt glad to get back to church on Sunday too.

Wyatt is a little shy, but also is well-spoken, smart and comical. He loves his family — even younger brother, Avery, 7 — and is glad to be home for now.

"It was home, sweet home," Wyatt said.

"Yes, it was, for all of us," Dwayne Miller added.

Wyatt is a competitive swimmer with Kalkaska's private swim team, and he's already been back in the familiar pool at the Kaliseum. His favorite event is the breaststroke, and he's a big fan of U.S. Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps.

"He's my inspiration," Wyatt said. "All gold."

In fact, it's swimming that helped show good results during Wyatt's early physical therapy sessions. Therapists put him in a pool and soon saw progress.

"That was the first place we saw his right arm move. There's so much muscle memory there," Amy Miller said.

Initially Wyatt couldn't walk, talk or use his body's right side after his stroke. His grip remains a little weak, but he's improving.

And now the countdown to Wyatt's AVM surgery begins.

"The doctors all are in consensus that it's the best long-term solution because he's so young and it could bleed again," Dwayne Miller said.

"Even after surgery, we may go backwards to go forward," Amy Miller said. "He doesn't express his feelings too much about what's going on, but when he does, that's the tough part."

Today will bring another benefit event for Wyatt Miller and his family. A pancake breakfast will be held from 8 a.m. until about 2 p.m. at the CETA Hall, 6565 County Road 612 NE, about 10 miles east of Kalkaska. Call 384-1967 for more information.