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PANS Symptoms: Anxiety
Read more: PANS Symptoms: AnxietyIt’s one thing to read PANS Diagnostic Criteria and something else to experience this disorder in real time. Part of raising awareness around PANS/PANDAS is helping people to understand what it can “look like” when it’s happening in your child or someone you know. Here, a focus on Anxiety.
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The Big Sick
Read more: The Big SickThis post marks the beginning of Isaac’s battle with PANS. It’s one thing to read a list of symptoms and something else to experience this disorder in real time. Part of raising awareness is helping people to understand what PANS can “look like” and feel like when it’s happening in your child or someone you…
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National Daughters Day
Read more: National Daughters DayNational Daughters Day offers a welcome prompt to write about my beloved daughter and also to remind us—all of us—that we never know what hardships people are carrying behind the scenes.
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A roll of the dice
Read more: A roll of the diceParents of kids with disabilities are not given some special dispensation that prepares us to handle everything that comes our way. We are just like other parents, but we inherit a workload and an emotional load a million times harder from the day our child is born. (Yes, I have a neurotypical child, too.) Some…
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Glasses and grief
Read more: Glasses and griefThese few episodes in Isaac’s early years are just a snapshot of our experience as his parents. It felt like there was something unexpected around every corner. The grief of having a child with disabilities is not a single event but something that unfolds continually over time. And I suppose what I really grieved, over…
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Our story & my WHY
Read more: Our story & my WHYThis is a recap and round up of posts about our early years with Isaac in case you missed any along the way or are just finding our story. Please share widely and invite your friends to read along, too.
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Signs of hope
Read more: Signs of hopeEven before we learned Isaac’s diagnosis, we knew his gross and fine motor skills were delayed. But I clearly remember thinking, surely speech would be a strength. Communication has always been one of my strengths. But once we knew Isaac had an XY chromosome variation, we knew speech therapy would be another part of his…
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Writing his own story
Read more: Writing his own storyThe first days, weeks, and months after we received Isaac’s genetic diagnosis were full of challenges, none more important than learning how to accept this new reality. Here I share some of the words that gave us hope and still help me through the hard days.
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He’s not sick
Read more: He’s not sickHaving a child with developmental delays would force us to contend with our biases and those of our society, values that are deeply rooted and not easily shaken, like the worth we place on education, ability, achievement and strength. These are not bad things, mind you. Todd and I had top scores in this value…
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A Rare Diagnosis
Read more: A Rare DiagnosisA peek behind the curtain into a parent’s grief and what it’s like to receive a rare diagnosis for a child.
Gray Colored Glasses 