SonyaMy son, has SWCAH and is 7 months old. I’m writing an article on what we’ve gone through and about CAH for my alma mater’s magazine. It will be reaching about 10,000 alumni (i went to a small school.) I need your help.
A couple issues ago, a professor wrote about his son who has autism, and I really learned alot. So I thought it would eb a good idea to write about my son. Part of it is I have to write about how my college experience affects my life and this current situation with my family. But mostly the purpose is to educate. I, like many of you had no idea what CAH was until my son was 9 days old. And now I find the need to educate as many as I can on the subject. I’m starting with this magazine, and if it goes well, I may call some of the local newspapers and see if they would be interested in helping me get out the word.
SO here’s the part where you can help. Really, there’s 2 things.First, I’m having a really hard time explaining CAH. What I mean is, I don’t want to cut and paste from the CARES foundation site, and for those that maybe aren’t going to do more research, I need something less technical. I want it to be clear, but ...well, I’m even having problems explaining it. I’ve talked about the adrenal glands, but basically, it sounds like everything’s fine. MY son will take meds and everything is fine. And I suppose it basically is, but we all have fears about life-long steroid use, stature, the flu...and I want to explain this without making it sound like " he’s fine, but..." I don’t want to emphasize a point that would make it sound as if, ’don’t forget he could die from the flu.’ I don’t kow if that’s making any sense at all.
Well, the second point is, the magazine would like a sidebar. So I was thinking of possible signs to look for at birth, or in the family history, or whatever someone would need to know who was maybe only skimming through the article.
Ok, that’s everything. If you think you could help, please let me know. Either email me, or just reply. I have until April to finish and I will send anyone a copy of the article when I’m done with it. Thanks in advance.
Sonya