Sydney

                It is supposed to be a happy and joyful day. It is supposed to be a celebration. It is supposed to be full of tears of joy and smiles. Instead this day is sad, scary, and filled with tears of sadness. This is something that no one in my family saw coming and no one is prepared for. All we know is something is wrong, she is not breathing on her own, and she is in danger. My family walks to the nursery to get a glimpse of what is happening and from a distance all you see is new parents holding their new bundle of joy wrapped in a pink blanket. At a closer look you see the tears rolling down their faces, the tubes and wires hanging from the blanket, and then the nurse brings her to the window. One look and all of our fears stared us in the face. She has Down’s syndrome. My baby cousin Sydney was born in May and now is almost six months old. The day she was born was not like we all pictured, but she is our miracle and she is the whole reason for my blog. Since this is my last blog I do not want to bring up a new disorder and tell you the symptoms, causes, and reasons to think before you laugh. I want you to know my real life story that has motivated me to hopefully change your view on people with medical afflictions. My very first blog touched on this experience, but now I want you to know the whole story, because someday you might see Sydney or someone like her and I want you to remember this story.

                The day Sydney was born everything went as planned. Her mother Mandy had a normal delivery and no one knew anything was wrong until the next day. The swelling went down in her face and she had to be under an oxygen hood because her lungs were not completely developed. Then the doctors kept looking at her hands and toes, her mouth, and her heart. While we were watching we thought it just was routine, but then Carl, her father, said she was going downhill. Sydney was too weak to eat so she has to have a feeding tube, and she never cried. The doctor walked to where we were all standing and pulled Carl aside. His knees hit the floor and tears ran down his face. The doctor explained Sydney has Down’s syndrome and needed to be in the hospital for a few weeks. Her toes were set far apart, the roof of her mouth is higher than normal, her fingers are shorter than normal, and she has one crease on the palm of her hand which is all signs of Down’s syndrome. My family was devastated. Sydney is Carl and Mandy’s first baby and now they are faced with the struggles she will have the rest of her life.

                After we got over the initial shock and then we were worried about her health. Since many babies with Down’s syndrome have heart problems and intestinal problems. They also have a higher risk of leukemia. Sydney had many tests done and everything came back normal. This was a huge sigh of relief and my whole family’s mood changed. We have accepted that she is different, but there is not one thing wrong with that. She spent about a month in the hospital and then came home to open arms. Except there was one person who could not accept the situation, her father; Carl was afraid from the beginning of Mandy’s pregnancy that something would go wrong and it did. He did not want to hold her, look at her, or accept she is his baby with Down’s syndrome. Sounds terrible right? Yes. But I want you to understand something. He was terrified. He knew firsthand what it is like to take of someone with special needs. When he was 17 he took care of a man that was mentally retarded, Bud. He was a janitor at Carl’s high school and when kids made fun of him Carl stood up for Bud. Bud lived with Carl until he passed away. Carl dealt with the daily struggles of feeding him, helping him when he messed his pants, and loved him through it all. You would think with his experience with Bud he would be the best parent for Sydney, but he knows what her life will be like and her struggles unlike the rest of us.

                Today Carl has realized God gave him Sydney for a reason and he is an amazing father. Sydney goes to physical therapy every week to work with her muscles because Down syndrome kids have a hard time developing their muscles. She is now sitting up, rolling over, and happier than ever. She is right on track for her age and has all the love in the world. She still never cries, if she is hungry she lets out one little yell and that is it. She smiles and laughs all the time. The amazing thing is the more time you spend with her you stop seeing that she has Down’s syndrome. To my family she is Sydney, our joyful gift that was unexpected, but we would not have her any other way.

                We will not know how severe her mental disabilities will be until she is older, but we hope for the best. I know that when she goes to school kids will make fun of her, I know when she walks in public people will stare, I know when she is my age she will have a different life than I have, but I also know that she will be beautiful, happy, and always have people to love her. What I hope for is that she will have people in her life that stand up for her, treat her like she is no different than anyone else, and accept her for who she is. What I really wish for is not what I can do for her, but what you can. I hope that if you ever met Sydney or someone like her you respect her and remember her story. I have talked to you for weeks about disorders that people make fun of people for having and that your laughs and jokes are HATE. I hope that my blog has changed your opinion about people with disorders and you will now stop the HATE and spread the word of RESPECT. I want Sydney to grow up in a world where she can be confident, and you can make that happen. If you stand up for people like her and tell your friends to and even teach your kids someday to treat everyone equal whether a person has Tourette’s, is obese, anorexic, mentally ill, or even purple they deserve love and respect. You can make a difference,” Be the change you wish to see in the world.”-Gandhi   

Tourette's Syndrome

   

After watching this video, let me ask you a question. Did you laugh? If your answer is yes then let me ask you some more questions. Do you know what Tourette’s Syndrome is? How it affects peoples’ lives? Or most important do you know that it is not funny? Well after I give you some information and a new perspective on this disease I would like you to watch this video again and tell me if you laugh.

What is Tourette’s Syndrome?  It is a neurological disorder that affects all people, different races, gender, and age, and it is incurable. It is characterized by involuntary and unusual movements and sounds called tics. Symptoms usually start to appear between the ages of seven and ten, and males are at a much high risk of getting Turrets than females. Some people out grow this disorder, but many do not and Turrets usually becomes progressively worse in the teen years.

 Now for the Symptoms, the symptoms of Turrets can be either simple or complex tics. These repetitive movements and sounds can be either motor or vocal. Simple motor tics include: blinking, jerking the head, eye darting, flexing the fingers, sticking the tongue out, and shrugging the shoulders. Complex motor tics are much more extreme and sometimes use the entire body. These include smelling things, touching the nose, extreme arm movements, hopping, touching other people, and can even include inappropriate motions (flipping the Bird). Some tics can be extreme enough to cause physical injury .Simple vocal tics are things like yelling, clearing the throat, barking, and hiccupping. Complex vocal tics include repeating words and phrases, echoing others, and cussing. Symptoms of Turrets usually are worse when the person is sick, excited, or nervous, but they usually slow down when the person is engaged in an activity that is calming. Interesting things at many people do not realize is that the tics do not completely go away while the person is sleeping.  To many people this sounds like fun, being able to cuss in public and flip people off and blame it on a disorder, but to someone with turrets it is embarrassing to not only them, but their friends and family.

                What causes Tourette’s syndrome? Well, no one knows. Some specialists believe it can be inherited or that the environment plays a part, but there is no solid answer to this question. Without a cause of Turrets this also means there is no way to prevent it or cure it, but treatment is available. The most important issue with this disorder is getting educated about it because this will make life much easier for you and the person suffering from it. Here is another video clip that I just want you to watch a little bit of to help you understand the life of a person with turrets.

 

***** Warning Viewer Discretion is Advised

                Now I want you to step into a person with turrets shoes. You wake up in the morning, try to brush your teeth, but that simple job is hard to manage with your tics getting tooth paste all over your face. Walking to school you flip the mail man off and he lectures you about manners and asked what he ever did to you. In the class room you bark and jerk and the other students laugh; your teacher can only take so much until she takes you out of class. Going to the mall after school with your friends your tics become worse, people stare, your friends back away, and then you set into your verbal tics. You cuss out every person who walks by, kids cry, mothers scorn you, men get angry with you, and the old ladies hit you. Now how does that sound? I understand that it is human nature to stare at people who are not considered normal, but all I ask is be educated about this disease and understand that the person with Turrets does not think it is funny. They have no control over their tics, how would you feel if you had no control over your body? When you see someone with this disorder please think before you laugh and stare and encourage others around you to do the same. Tourette’s syndrome does not make life any easier and people’s rude comments, staring, laughing, and making a person with turrets the punch line of a joke is Hate. So let me ask you again, are you still laughing?  

Bulimia Nervosa

Raiding the kitchen for anything you can get your hands on, chips, cookies, cake, donuts, literally everything and anything, you eat way past the normal standard of a snack or a meal, but you are smarter than someone who is overweight, because you know you can eat all of this food and not gain a pound. Once you are done stuffing your face and the kitchen is almost empty, you make your way to the bathroom, you calmly lean towards the toilet, stick your finger down your throat and relieve yourself of all the calories and fat you just ingested. This sounds like the perfect diet right? You can eat anything you want and as much as you want and not gain but lose weight. Nothing wrong with that right? Yes because this behavior is called bulimia and it is a disease than can be life threatening without treatment.  

First off, what is Bulimia Nervosa other than this wonderful “diet plan”? Bulimia is a disease that affects a person’s perception of their body image. In their attempts to try and control their weight, but still eat, unlike Anorexia, a person will binge and purge which means they will take in large amounts of food and then make themselves throw up so they do not absorb any of the fat or calories. Binges often occur in private. Once the binge episode ends, the purging begins. This may mean heading to the bathroom to vomit, hitting the treadmill for hours of exercise, or not eating for long periods of time (fasting). The scary thing about this disease is you cannot tell someone has it by looking at them, so they could be suffering from this for years and go untreated. A person suffering from bulimia usually has a normal body type or may even be slightly overweight and they usually stay a constant weight because they are still eating and some of the food is absorbed before they throw it up.

Now for the symptoms, rather than just give you a long boring list I will just point out the major ones you may need to look for in yourself or friends. Other than the obvious over eating and vomiting, some people abuse laxatives to lose the calories from bingeing, over use exercising, go to the bathroom after every meal, have damaged gums and teeth, have abnormal bowel movements, have sores in the throat and mouth, and scars on the knuckles or hands from forced vomiting.  The complications from this disease are serious. They range from heart problems such as heart failure, absence of a period in females, digestive problems, damage to the throat and esophagus, tooth decay, and ultimately death. Does this “diet plan” seem so perfect now? Yes, you may have a steady weight, but you will also have rotten or no teeth, a bloated stomach from the misuse of laxatives, and sores in your mouth. And to top it all off this “diet plan” is a road to the grave. If you were to see a picture of a person I just described you would think they do crystal meth, not suffering from a disease.

Who is at risk?  Well, Girls and women are more likely to have bulimia than boys and men are. Also, bulimia often begins in late adolescence or early adulthood, so college students are more at risk than young teens. People who lose weight are often reinforced by positive comments from others and by their changing appearance. This may cause some people to take dieting too far, leading to bulimia. Also, not surprisingly athletes, dancers, and models are at higher risk of eating disorders, such as bulimia. Coaches and parents may unwittingly contribute to eating disorders by encouraging young athletes to lose weight.

                What I really want you to take from this blog is that bulimia is a disease that is an addiction. This is not something someone can just stop doing; it is a way of life for them. Look for these symptoms in you friends and possibly yourself, because if this goes untreated the results are not only devastating, but deadly. Another issue I want to make clear is that just bingeing and purging every once in a while is still bulimia. Many girls in my high school would do this every so often and brag about it, which completely disgusted me. They believed they were doing nothing wrong and they had complete control, but to their dismay they did not. The bingeing and purging became more frequent and it was not until teachers and parents were involved that they got help. What seems harmless at first can be deadly in the end.