Here’s another addition of WEGO Health’s Advocating for Another Blog Carnival:
Prompt: Today’s post theme is all about the reveal. What’s something people would be surprised to know about your life as a parent and/or about your child. Explore and elaborate upon it in stream-of-consciousness-style.
I don’t write much about my older daughter’s life when she was younger. She is an adult now. She finished high school and college early. She has a Master’s degree. She is married. She is a loving, caring and responsible young woman who has a job, is a volunteer, enjoys being physically active, traveling and and has lots of friends.
When she was a tween, she began to move her jaw. It was a habit that she couldn’t stop. It started to hurt her. She got in trouble in middle school for yawning loudly. Little by little, my daughter was saddened because she had no control over more and more unusual movements. The yawns covered up a noise she wanted to make.
I took her to the pediatrician when she complained about her jaw hurting. We were referred to a dentist, then a dentist that specialized in TMJ. No answers. Back to the doctor who had no idea what was wrong. Every day she was feeling worse. Out of the blue, I brought her to my family doctor. And after one examination he told us that she had tics and couldn’t control them. That she needed to see a psychologist or a neurologist.
We visited a child psychologist who did intensive testing. She was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome. Our journey was just starting. She had to deal with symptoms that made her stand out from others, from shame, from physical pain. And I became an advocate to be sure that she was treated well at school, to be sure that she had the right treatment, to learn more about Tourette’s Syndrome and to help her cope.
By the time she was 17, she no longer needed medication to reduce the tics. She is much better than she was, but as a mom I notice those tics that sneak up but were constant before. I love my daughter and in turn because of that love, I was a parent advocate. I never thought I’d be one again.
To learn more about the Advocating for Another Blog Carnival visit http://bit.ly/A4Amonth.
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