Re: Lend me an ear?
12/13/01 12:20 PM

Hi Julia, I am an adult w/ SWCAH from birth and I thought maybe I could give you a different perspective.  I grew up a huge Tomboy.  My mother had patches on the patches of my jeans!  I was always rough housing wiht the neighborhood boys, played baseball until they made me play softball, etc.  I was their second child, the first with CAH and then my younger brother was born with it as well.  I KNOW my parents worried a lot about me as an infant and even as I entered grade school.  There were always concerns w/ my medications and my getting sick and hospitalized.  Until I was about 6 or 7 I was in/out of the hospital a few times a year as I would get sick and dehydrate and my chemistry would get all out of whack.  But my parents got better at anticipating my needs and symptoms.  They learned to live with it, and me.  My personality is not one to be coddled and they tried not to let me be treated different or protect me any more than a parent would any child.  Whenever we traveled they made sure they had extra meds and letters from my doctor explaining my condition and where he could be reached in case of emergency.  I still do the same thing as an adult (and i travel a lot more now) and thankfully have never had to use this information.  I guess what I'm trying to say is: I made it!  Despite broken bones, cuts, bruises, chicken poz, nearly drowning in a lake, and a host of other things I put my parents through I am an adult now.  Although, technically, there are circumstances that make your daughters life more complicated than others she is still your basic child.  Open to all the experiences (good and bad) and dangers that every child faces.  You are a well educated, loving parent with her best interests at heart and will always have worries about her but, hey....every parent does that :-)  As she gets older it will be more familiar to you and your husband and some day you'll look back and say "We did a pretty good job"

 

Patty
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