Trials

This will explain my Daughter's Story:

As I walked into the doctor's office for my daughter, Samantha's three month old check up, I was asked the simple question, "Is she rolling yet?" I smiled as I blushed and said, "No. Is that a bad thing?" All the nurse did was smile. I was a new parent and it was obvious. "Not unless she isn't rolling by six months. Then we would need to worry." I walked out after her check up feeling blissful as any other parent would if they had heard the doctor say, "She looks good! See you next month." It was not for another three months that I remembered the nurse's question. At six months, Samantha still was not rolling. This was the first time I realized that my daughter was trailing behind. She was never one of those early babies who lifted their head in the hospital, but I never gave any of that a second thought until my mind went fleeting back to all the signs: no rolling, no sitting up, failed ability surveys. What would I do? Little did I know, the events that would follow would inevitably decide what I went to college for and what my career would be for the rest of my working life.

The evaluation was a day I will never forget. A group of nurses swarmed my living room and made themselves comfortable in the middle of the floor. After introducing themselves, each individually, they began to check out my daughter like a hawk stares at its prey. I remember an abundance of terms that I had never heard before, "She has midline delays and undeveloped muscle masses,” one nurse observed. All the typical questions ran through my head. What did all this mean? Does she have a real problem? Did I cause it? What can I do to help? After much discussion between the nurses and directors, she was officially a patient in physical therapy by the end of that week.

Her first session left me feeling even more clueless than I already was. I met her therapist and as she talked me through my daughter's "peabody scores," I realized that I had to do something more to help her. She was my daughter and she was already three months behind. How could I miss that? Her therapist left me with all sorts of information and exercises. Over time, I felt prepared to face whatever the next step was going to throw at us. At ten months my daughter rolled over for the very first time. That was when we thought she was improving and all this would be over soon. Shortly after, however, at one year old, she was placed in occupational therapy for a swallowing disorder named Dysphagia.

No parent dreams of having a calendar full of therapy sessions and orthotic appointments. No parent dreams of having a cabinet full of food thickener instead of cookies and other snacks. As each parent eagerly awaits the arrival of the newest addition to their family, they think of all the milestones their child will accomplish earlier than other children and how intellectually advanced he or she will become. For my daughter, that is not the case. However, my daughter is beginning to improve. She is a happy, healthy, little girl and I could not ask for more. She has an amazing personality and she has grow up to become an amazing little Girl. I Love Her. She is my World.