Uncategorized

The Power of Others

Kate WelchLeave a comment

When I wrote my last blog entry, the quarantine had just begun. For me, it was frightening, but it felt like the kind of frightening you feel when there is a storm coming that will close schools down but not do much enduring damage.

            How quickly that fear wrapped its roots around the world and began to tether us to the earth, like a vine of Kudzu that can consume an entire forest in very short order. We all stepped back, locked our doors and hid away from the world.

            Though quarantine seems to work in most cases to prevent the spread of COVID-19, I have been looking for studies of its other impacts. How many more prescriptions are being written for anxiety, depression and sleep issues? How many people are seeking much-needed mental health support? How many suicides and suicide attempts can be attributed to this ghastly virus?

            If families are able to quarantine together, it can be good or bad. A good family can support each other, play games, share in educational duties and find comfort in company. An abusive or unhealthy family will find their behaviors exacerbated, creating a more dangerous environment than they previously experienced. And for those who live alone, whether by choice or circumstance, loneliness can be deadly. Tensions draw tighter even in the best of circumstances and can cause collapse in the worst.

            Jane Clay of the American Psychological Association states it more eloquently than I in a special report dated June 1, 2020: “…physical distancing is endangering mental health even as it protects physical health.”

            A few weeks ago, feeling a little down and more than a little trapped, I decided to plant a flower garden in honor of someone very dear to me who recently passed away. I bought flats and flats of flowers to plant around my home, so that every window was brightened with happy little flowers, their faces turned with joy toward the sun.

            As usually happens, after one day, one particular Vinca flower was withered and bending over. I’m not a good gardener—I tend to follow the lines of concrete on my patio and I’m happy with that. But this little flower was going to leave a gaping hole between the flowers on either side of it.

            I didn’t want to put my mask back on and trek back to the nursery, so I went to my trash can and drew out a flower I had discarded because it didn’t look healthy. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I carefully pulled it out, dug a little spot next to my sick flower, and nestled them together. Normal spacing for Vinca is six inches, but I was feeling reckless that day.

            This morning, I was watering and feeding my flowers. They always bring a smile to my face. They are a reminder of the beauty that God gives us, and to me they offer a reprieve from how very fast our world has fallen into so many different kinds of devastation and loss.

            When I got to my two sick flowers, I smiled and started looking for my neighbors, hoping to show them this tiny little miracle, but no one was out. I’m smiling as I write this. Those two flowers have grown together. They look like one being, and they look happy. They are in the photo that accompanies this post. I’m still not a gardener, but today I feel like I saved two flowers and I am smiling non-stop.

            As I cleaned up and came back inside, my mind took rainbow tracks to think of the implications of these flowers. The brightest track was one we all know: like the flowers that needed each other, we are social beings. Two sick flowers were able to heal together, while COVID-19 patients are kept in isolation. I fully understand the medical issues, but what direction would our death rates go if patients were allowed to safely see loved ones? What miraculous effect would this have on our front line workers who have seen more death and held more hands of the dying than any one individual should ever be tasked with?

            My boyfriend is the greatest extrovert I’ve ever known. In all of my tests, I’m labeled an extroverted introvert. All of us, no matter what label attempts to define us, fall somewhere along the line and every single one of us need each other. For my boyfriend, he needs to be around friends or family almost all the time. I’m good with being with him and seeing friends and family a few times a week. For others, it could be once a week or less. But we all have the same need. This isolation is hurting everyone, no matter their label.

            Here is where my precious Caleb makes his well-anticipated appearance. Now living in a group home, which has the same classification of a nursing home, I was told in March that if I came to see him, I would have to bring him home with me and he couldn’t return to his home until the virus was over. I miss that young man so much that I debated for half a second, then realized that if I brought him home, it would be awful. For him.

            All of Caleb’s favorite things from our home are now set up in his room at his new home. There is literally nothing here for him. Beyond that, he has three roommates he adores, staff that are now family to both of us and so much opportunity for interaction with others that it would be selfish for me to bring him home to sit on my couch.

            I call Caleb all the time. Every single conversation is happy. He tells me what he’s eating, what funny thing his roommate said, what movie he’s watching. His day program was cancelled during the quarantine and I worried that he would be bored or stressed. But with so much love around him, he seemed blissfully, wonderfully unaware that the world around him had drastically changed. The wonderful staff members have kept consistency and routine running like the best steam train, and that is the most important thing to Caleb and his roommates. They also keep the home so clean and germ-free, following health protocols that would make the CDC proud.

            Caleb has given me more validation that the time was perfect for him to move out of my house and into his new environment. I think of all of the families with a special needs child or adult living with them and how tortuous it must be to find things to do. Even kids with autism, despite what you may have heard, need some interaction. Caleb will watch a movie with his buddies and then retreat to his room to regroup. But any special needs person living with family members will likely feel the strain of not seeing others, and the family members will likely be breaking down from trying to support this very special loved one.

            I’m not endorsing anyone to go out nor have people over to visit until we are cleared by health officials. But maybe, like the flowers, if we can find a way to FaceTime or Zoom or call, it might bridge the gap of loneliness. Connect with old friends. Call family you maybe haven’t spoken to in a while. Write letters to teachers and doctors and nurses who gave you everything they have.

            Caleb has now been allowed to see me two times and he is so happy, but I know not all states are as opened up as ours, and I know ours could close back up in an instant. I’m hopeful we can move past this time in our history, but I also know that where we have been has changed us all. And it might get worse.

            Be kind to yourself. Give yourself a little treat, be it a nap or a candy bar or planting a flower. Find a way to connect with someone. And remember that we are so much stronger when we have at least one person to lean on and grow with. Go find them.

If you find yourself needing help with suicidal thoughts or actions, please contact The American Suicide Lifeline: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

If you need to talk to someone, please consider: https://www.betterhelp.com/

If you want prayer, please consider: https://www.hisradio.com/prayer/prayer-needs/

Whatever you do, please don’t ever, ever think that this world would be better off without you. We need you.

Advertisement

Everything You’ve Ever Wanted is on the Other Side of Fear

Kate WelchLeave a comment

Right off the bat, let’s quickly attribute that quote to George Addair. I’ve found plenty of proof that he said that, but I can’t find anything else about the man. His quote, however, changed my life.

Fifty-two days ago, I placed my sweet, vulnerable, darling Caleb into a residential home. Fear of that act has siphoned my life force for the past decade. But more on that later.

Fear has been a constant companion in my life. As a little girl, I feared the dark and Hamburgler-like robbers who might sneak in during the night.

We would go on to have our apartment broken into and the one car in our family stolen, so those fears grew long, invasive roots like a willow tree. Many storms would come and invade otherwise normal days, sending those roots further into the soil of my psyche.

As an adult, my fears became more esoteric. Fear of failing, fear of success, fear of saying or doing the wrong thing, fear of reacting too strongly. Feminism was rampant by 1985, but it had not yet perched in my soul.

Mostly I feared confrontation. I would simply stop talking to a friend rather than have a conversation. If I received a bad grade for a project, I would write a letter to the teacher. During one history presentation, I videotaped it rather than perform my speech in front of the class—I was afraid of that teacher, who, two years later, would go to prison for attacking a student.

Confrontation, in my mind had two speeds: 1 or 100 MPH. One MPH was complete avoidance, which leads to self-hatred and an awful pit in my stomach. 100 MPH is screaming at the subject, like that out-of-control father in Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It video.

My life would be a series of conflict-avoidance scenarios. I won’t list them here but the most egregious was that I was raped, after two sips of a drink at a fraternity party, in 1987, when I was 17 years old. I am deadly serious when I tell you I didn’t report him for fear of his reputation being sullied. I also knew viscerally that at that point in time, I would be blamed.

Another trespass on my soul was having my college honors thesis denied by a female professor because she claimed it was written with a traditional woman’s point of view. My interpretation of feminism means we support all women in their beliefs, but my university did not share this view and I was denied that honor at graduation.

Three years later, pregnant with my second child, I didn’t feel any fear, certainly nothing like I had felt when I had my daughter Sophie 17 months before. Throughout Caleb’s pregnancy I felt peace and content.

When he was born at midnight and taken by noon from Princeton, NJ to Philadelphia, PA, I still felt no fear. When a cardiologist called the hospital later that night and told me that Caleb seemed to have a condition called DiGeorge Syndrome (now called 22Q Deletion Syndrome), I felt no fear for me, only for that tiny baby who was now so far away from me, awaiting open-heart surgery. I was soaking in worry, but not fear.

Six weeks later, after a grueling recovery for both of us, my little family was transferred from New Jersey to Buffalo, New York. I received a bill from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the amount of $144,000 for Caleb’s surgery and hospital stay.

I knew I had to call immediately, but I couldn’t let my babies out of my sight for any length of time so I sat at the kitchen table, preparing my confrontation. Raising my voice would frighten Caleb and his 18 month-old sister so I took a few deep breaths. My hands shook a bit as I dialed the hospital.

The woman on the other line verified the bill.

“But we have insurance,” I said calmly.

“Yes,” she said disdainfully, “but you didn’t pre-register your son so it won’t go through insurance.”

“So after missing my baby for four days and leaving against medical advice, you’re telling me that before rushing to see my baby, I was supposed to stop by and register him?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” she huffed. “It’s procedure. Now, can you pay all at once or—“

“Is this the number you wanted?”

Silence.

“You see, ma’am, the first thing I did when I arrived at your hospital was pre-register my son. We’re done here, right?”

That bill ended up being paid in full. After I hung up, a peace settled about my chest. I had just had my first confrontation without yelling. I was a little drunk with power. If only I had known how many peace-stealing confrontations were headed my way.

Two months later, I called another hospital because I hadn’t received a confirmation call from the MRI department for the next day’s appointment.

“We have no Caleb on the schedule today or on any day. You must have done something wrong.”

My heart raced, my throat completely dried out and tears threatened to shoot straight out of my eyes.

“But… but, there is a hole in the crack of his bottom and they told me it could be a tethered spinal cord, which would need immediate medical attention. You have to see him.”

“I could try to schedule him now, but our next appointment is 8 months out.”

I went numb. I looked at that little boy who had already had open-heart surgery, four missed spinal taps and a balloon catheterization. Failure was out of the question.

I believe God spoke for me now, because there is no way, in that moment that I could have responded with: “Ma’am, I don’t know if you have children, but if you do, I pray they are healthy. If they have special needs like my son, I pray that people will be kinder to you than you are being to me right now.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, and I believed her. “Let me see what I can do.”

For the test, she had to coordinate the test, anesthesiologists and a cardiologist, but she made it happen two days later. Caleb would eventually be diagnosed with midline failure to close, but his spine, for that time, was healthy.

Fear had made confrontation something ugly and angry in my mind. It had made confrontation something in which neither would be happy, with no growth or understanding. In learning to face fear, I was learning to change the face of confrontation and it would change my life and my children’s lives completely.

The rape and the damaged girl it left behind in tatters would lead to an abusive 19-year marriage, from which I eventually fled, calling upon all of my fear of confrontation. Sure, I was scarred and hobbling, but I had my teenage babies with me. I left like many abused wives, under the watch of a skilled therapist. We slipped out quietly while he was out of town, taking only our clothes and the computer which held all of my writing.

I conquered the fear of being a single mom—I learned that I had lived that role for almost two decades and that fear was baseless.

There would be other fear and fights along the way: fights for inclusion, therapies, proper class placement, medical tests and treatments. When Caleb turned 21, I had to fight to find doctors and dentists who were willing to take him on, since the pediatric world could no longer see him.

But there was this one fear. You know the kind. The kind, that, as a child, made a sweater in the corner of your room at night look like a monster. As an adult, it’s the kind that slips into a dream and rotates that dream into a nightmare that will wake you, dripping in sweat, afraid of the most gruesome corner of your mind.

This fear was “What will happen to my son, the light and love of my life, if I die? Who on earth could care for him?”

If I dig a little further, that fear descends to knowing that, with this child, I am not leaving him to live a better life than I had. We all want our children to know better than we did. Caleb will have a full life, but a much different one than I dreamed for him.

Caleb’s sister, Sophie, is knee-deep into a PhD program in genetics. She is learning computer coding. She knows more in the first second of her waking than I will know in a month. Sophie will live every parent’s dream—she will live a full, satisfying, rewarding life.

My fear of leaving Caleb exploded on October 2. A traumatic act did occur, but to me, thank the Lord, not Caleb. I went into that confrontation with the courage of an All Star sliding into home plate.

The new placement took a few conversations. I advocated for an immediate change of placement, which used that carefully honed skill of quiet confrontation.

I only realized after everything had happened that my entire life had prepared me for that one phone call.

Caleb, though his calm, sweet, strong disposition taught me to fight for him. He taught me to look fear in the face and walk toward it. Like Dory and Nemo sang, “You can’t go over it, you have to go through it.”

Through careful negotiation, I was able to help him secure housing in the Cadillac of homes in our area, with amazing staff, roommates his own age, and a private bed and bathroom. He still attends the day program he adores. Friends and I believe he is the happiest and most independent we’ve ever seen him.

Fear blocked me from ever seeing that Caleb’s life could be this wonderful. The wise Mr. Addair was right.

I know I have many more fears to confront, but I will use this experience as my exemplar.

So what’s on the other side of your fear?

 

Photo Credit: Dr. Joseph Ivan on Twitter

The Fallacy of Eyesight

Kate Welch2 Comments

Caleb has had a favorite song for over six years, Matt Redman’s Blessed Be Your Name performed by the Newsboys. I will share a few verses in a minute but something just happened that I have to tell you about.

We have an Alexa device that doesn’t understand Caleb, so he asked me to request the song while he was eating lunch.

I made his favorite macaroni and cheese, mostly tuning out the first part of the song that I have heard a million times.

These verses are out of order but I’ve grouped them so you might understand Caleb’s reaction.

Every blessing You pour out, I’ll
Turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say… Blessed be your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

It’s so easy to assume that just because Caleb can’t always express emotion that he can’t feel everything like we all do. This is a fatal misunderstanding.

As the song ended, I went to get his plate and cup. He was wiping his eyes. Caleb cries like many young boys I have seen. No tears actually fall, but his eyes turn red and he pinches the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, trying to keep those tears from ever escaping.

Though not frequent, I know it signals something profound. I know he is feeling pain that is usually suppressed. I don’t know where the sadness goes and it hurts to think of him keeping so much pain inside instead of letting me or someone else help.

Caleb is one of the happiest people you will ever meet. He loves all things light and funny and when something tickles him, he roars with a deep belly laugh that crescendos into a high pitched squeal. He and my boyfriend have more private jokes than I’ve had in a lifetime. Caleb often laughs at nothing at all. He seeks joy constantly. He abhors sadness and anger.

When I saw him wiping his tears, the words from the song hit me like ice.

God you give and take away
Oh you give and take away
But my heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

When it ended, I asked, “You love that song, don’t you, buddy.”

Through red eyes, Caleb replied, “Yeah.”

“Why is it your favorite,” I asked.

His answer shattered me

“The story of my life.”

Caleb does love The Story of My Life by One Direction, I believe for the same reason he loves Blessed Be Your Name.

Come closer to hear how profound this is. Caleb tests cognitively around age 5 but I believe he is much more advanced and that standardized testing isn’t sensitive enough to truly measure cognition. We don’t have the tools to measure intelligence that doesn’t fit into neat little boxes. We are missing out on so much by dismissing those who can’t ace an SAT or IQ test.

I’ve actually gotten angry with professionals who tell me Caleb’s IQ. To one, I said, “How about we give you an IQ test in Mandarin right now?” But I digress.

I see Caleb’s insight and intelligence in how he has analyzed and interpreted these two songs. It confounds me because the theme of both songs is a deep philosophical musing about one’s life. The lyrics require the listener to reflect and to search for an answer about why things happen. They require the listener to accept that which we can’t change.

One of Caleb’s challenges is that his diagnosis of 22Q chromosome deletion syndrome greatly impacted his brain. In this syndrome, there are already assumed learning differences and often some form of mental retardation. A geneticist told me years ago that when autopsies have been performed on someone with 22Q, in their brain there is white matter where there is supposed to be grey matter and vice versa. He said that where you and I have freeways, Caleb and others like him have cul-de-sacs. Some information can never, ever get through.

Imagine living a day like this. Knowing something, wanting to answer a question, wanting to ask a question, wanting to express anything only to have it blocked by your brain. It would be worse than that awful feeling of having something on the tip of your tongue. I can’t conceive of the level of frustration and hopelessness that must plague Caleb every minute of every day.

In addition to the issues from the syndrome, Caleb had open-heart surgery at four days of age. During surgery, the medical team had to stop Caleb’s circulation and keep his brain on ice for four hours, ending with a full blood transfusion. I’m not a doctor but I’ve read articles that insinuate that perhaps Caleb’s surgery went too long, that his brain was deprived of oxygen to the extent that significant mental retardation was the result. I don’t blame the doctors. I wanted my baby, in whatever state they could return him to me.

Caleb suffered several febrile (high fever) seizures until he turned five.  A 105 degree fever overwhelmed his system and a seizure was the way to bring his temperature back to normal. During them, he would turn blue and it would seem like he wasn’t breathing. I believe those contributed as well.

I’ve written how, in 2006, Caleb broke his femur at school. Surgery followed that afternoon and when I could see Caleb again, he was burning up. His body can’t regulate temperature and I believe his fever was 107. Though he was past the age where he would have a febrile seizure, Sophie and I believe he had several seizures that day, perhaps in surgery and in the recovery room. Again, the doctors did all they could and I place no blame. I wanted to get my baby home.

If you look at pictures of Caleb before and after the femur break, it’s as if you can see a dimming in the light behind his gorgeous baby blue eyes. It’s permanent and such a startling change. There are moments where he is especially engaged and you can get a sweet glimpse of who he could have been without this syndrome. Friends call it 10 seconds of typical. It gives me such hope and I yearn to wrap him in bubble wrap so the typical boy never goes away. But it recedes like a tide and is just as difficult to chase.

I share all of this about Caleb’s mental condition so that you may understand that Caleb crying today over a song was actually him screaming out that he knows his life has been difficult, and that he accepts it. Socrates would be so impressed that Caleb knows his precept: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

So many people underestimate Caleb and those like him and I’m writing this to shout that these marvelous people know. There is sentient, deep, reflective, insightful intelligence locked inside someone who looks inferior to many people. Please, when you see someone challenged, wave if they look like they’d like it, smile if it looks like they may smile back, or simply ask for a blessing for them as you pass by.

We were at Wal-Mart today and Caleb saw row after row of Valentine’s Day heart boxes. I usually pick one out for him, but he was so excited I told him he could pick his own. He roared his happy growl with that squeal at the end and a Wal-Mart employee smiled so engagingly at him that I said, over my shoulder, “Thank you so much for thinking that was cute.”

“But he is cute,” she said.

“I know,” I responded, “but I love when others see it too.”

Even though I’m focusing on what Caleb can express, there is something more painful with which he has to deal. Caleb, I believe, understands everything. He’s teaching himself to read by memorizing song titles and then typing them into his iPad. He’s mostly quiet, but he’s taking in all of the conversations around him, even things I don’t want him to hear.

I’ve been writing about the denial we received for Caleb to live in residential housing. I filed an appeal a few weeks ago, in an eight-page single-spaced plea to our state’s DDSN board. This week I received a letter from the state director, telling me that she read my appeal and is overturning the denial and placing him on the waitlist, for which I am eternally grateful.

Caleb has been picking up on all of this new language about a home. I haven’t told him directly because there is nothing available at this time. Telling him now would only fill him with anxiety and fear that don’t have an end-date. I will only tell him when a decision has been made.

I know it will be so difficult for him at first but I also know that he will thrive in a structured setting with friends and a caretaker. It will take time and if it doesn’t work, I’ll bring him back home if I am physically able. From all he has gleaned from overheard conversations, I know he can sense a major change on the horizon.

So this is the final verse of the song that muses on good times and hard times, triumphs and challenges:

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name

My amazing Caleb lives a life of complete trust in God. I’ve never seen a more pure example of a good and faithful servant and I’m grateful, humbled and beyond blessed to be his mom.

Photo credit: Medium

Run

Kate Welch4 Comments

This life as Caleb’s mom has honed me into a devout Christian. I am also a firm believer in karma and the law of attraction. I wish I could only attract good, strong, happy things but sometimes negative just attracts more negative.

A few weeks ago I wrote about trying to find a residential placement for my precious Caleb. I threw in a story which mentioned a sacral dimple that he had in 1997, when he was six months old.

Last week, I found another one. A bigger one that was bleeding. Karma, law of attraction or simple coincidence? I’m not going to speculate. I’m too busy learning how to care for this new disease.

For those so inclined to know this rather icky condition, it is a small depression in the crack of one’s bottom.

One has existed for 22 years. I don’t know when this new one formed or when it ruptured. Yesterday, I found the smallest and newest, above the other two.

Special needs moms will understand the fatigue of which I am about to write. The need to press doctors to please do something—send us to a specialist, write a prescription, give me a diagnosis, anything that will help make sense of something new and terrifying.

Last week, after pushing for a quick appointment instead of one in a month, we saw a colon and rectal specialist who diagnosed Caleb with pilonidal disease. Not uncommon but not common. Just like Caleb.

The doctor calmly listed the care for this condition. He listened to every question and patiently answered every one. He told me if Caleb gets a high fever, this condition will likely be the cause and he will need to come in immediately to have it drained and begin a course of strong antibiotics.

He told me to stop using soap on Caleb’s back. To keep the area trimmed of hair. To apply diaper rash ointments or creams because the one that ruptured last week was certainly painful to Caleb who never, ever complains. Once more, I had failed my son because I didn’t know of a struggle he can’t communicate.

Like all of our other wonderful doctors, this doctor doesn’t know that he just added that one extra card that collapses the house.

I hear an echo in the recesses of my exhausted brain. It whirs around like confetti. Isaiah 40:31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

Papa, it’s so hard and I’m so tired.

My child, I already gave you the words and my promise for this situation: Run the race with perseverance.

But it’s so hard. And I’m so tired.

Run. With perseverance.

But…

Run.

When we arrived home from that appointment, the charging cable for Caleb’s iPad broke. It’s his favorite thing in the world so, already upset from the examination, he became angry and agitated that he couldn’t keep the iPad charged at 100%. OCD can be very cruel to someone who already struggles with so many issues.

While I was ordering a new cable online, his case manager called to tell me that his application for residential placement was denied. Again.

I will never understand why, in our life and everyone else’s, when one thing goes wrong it seems like an invitation for other things to go disturbingly awry as well. Law of attraction?

Papa, it’s so hard and I’m so tired.

I often wake right at 2:00 in the morning. I desperately try, like my mother has taught me, to thank God for all of the good in my life. There is so much, truly. I start, but then my mind starts to wander.

What if, after all of this fighting, Caleb ends up in a place where they are not kind to him? What if they don’t notice a small hole in his back and he becomes really sick? What if he wakes in the middle of the night and has no one to comfort him and try to talk him down from a nightmare?

I hear, in those recesses, words that fight to be heard among the chaos, Psalm 46:10: Be still, and know that I am God.

I don’t doubt these words. I know them and breathe them and feel them in the marrow of my bones. But like Peter, my absolute favorite Saint, I find myself panicking in the Sea of Galilee when the water turns rough. I find myself hyperventilating in the garden at Gethsemane. One minute, I’m cutting off the ear of a guard, the next, denying Jesus’ existence, devoid of the faith that had propped me up so well a few hours ago.

I suppose that’s why it’s called a walk of faith. It’s not a cruise. It’s not a romp. It’s a walk, along a rocky, lonely, painful, and questioning path.

Please don’t misunderstand and think for a moment that I’m not acutely aware that this path is primarily Caleb’s. He is the one who has to withstand physical and emotional pain, misunderstanding and living in a world that makes so much less sense than one he would design for himself. I know.

This morning I was working out at home. A struggle for sure, but I was giving it my best effort. About 35 minutes into a 45 minute DVD, Caleb came down and said, with calmness and deliberation: “I need help with my TV. Please.”

These words are a Herculean effort for my son. He typically expresses his wants and needs with as few syllables as possible.

Because this request was so eloquently stated, I paused my DVD and went upstairs to Caleb’s private retreat.

Somehow, this young man whose true IQ can’t be properly measured had programmed his TV to only communicate in French (which I am fluent in, but couldn’t translate this morning) and to only display in black and white. He was pissed off.

I sat on his bed for 15 minutes trying to figure out how to rectify this situation. I am fairly technologically savvy and fairly fluent in French, despite what I said earlier. It was impossible to untangle this mangled fishnet.

I kept saying, as calmly as I could, with my muscles tightening from warm and ready to go to something resembling concrete, “I am so angry right now, Caleb.”

When I finally fixed the problem, I went to hug him and apologize for being angry. He kept his arms as his sides, like one of those toy soldiers.

“Hands to self,” he said.

Like so many phrases in autism, that one is a triumph and a defeat. It’s a triumph that he could communicate such a complicated phrase instead of just screaming. But it was also a defeat in the heart of a mom who was trying to issue an apology.

I have never, ever questioned why Caleb was given to me. I have always accepted that he was given to me, truly a gift, even if I don’t understand it. There are times I wear my role as his mom as a badge of courage. And there are times I cower on the bathroom floor, mascara running black tracks down my face, my chest heaving with sobs that probably should have been let loose back in 1996. Old sobs hurt as much as new sobs.

At the same time, I have relied on government programs to fortify my incredibly vulnerable son’s life. I worry and then worry some more that if something happens to me, he will be thrust into a life he can’t understand. I am confounded as to why they are fighting us so hard right now to help me secure his future.

There is, of course, another Bible quote to combat this worry fatigue. Matthew 6:25-27: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

I groan, like any child. And I remind myself that my life is just a borrowed gift. So is Caleb’s. This time will fly by in God’s heart like a few moments. And I will understand everything one day.

Then, like gentle rain slipping down new spring leaves, I hear my brother tell me in Matthew 11:28-30: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

I slip the other end of my yoke over Jesus’ shoulder. He smiles at me and we begin the first steps of what will be a long run.

Photo credit: Medium.com

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Now Begin Our Initial Descent into Neverland

Kate Welch2 Comments

I first began worrying about Neverland in 2009. Caleb was 13, still making progress, but it was becoming clearer that he would never be independent. I vacillated between the idea of him living with me forever or living in a residential home with others like him. It’s a mental battle I like to call the sleep thief.

My past life, before I left my ex-husband, was pretty opulent. On that night in 2009, I was in a limo, riding to a lovely restaurant with the wife of one of his employees

She was complaining about into which of several schools her two middle-school athlete sons might gain acceptance. Which college, that is.

Even though my ex had whined at me innumerable times to avoid this topic, I said, “My only problem is that one child will leave for college and one never will.”

What followed was the silence of a bleached-blonde (actually, no prejudice against that one), gel-nailed, spray-tanned, four-hours-every-day-in-the-gym content woman. I wouldn’t trade Caleb or Sophie for anything, but I did wonder what life would be like if it was like hers.

Pink flushed down her face to her neck, and she replied, “Uh, um, I never thought of that.” She then looked out the window at the tapestry of Tampa traffic for the next half-hour.

Caleb has loved Peter Pan since before he could walk. It honestly wasn’t until our 86th time on the Peter Pan ride at Disney World (I already mentioned the opulent lifestyle, right?) that I realized that my son was Peter Pan. He would never, ever grow up. There are so many blessings for him in that world, but so many trials for me.

My Sophie graduated high school with honors. She graduated college with honors. She’s now in a super competitive graduate school program. She flew out of the nest and made a strong, loving, independent life with her darling husband. She’s done all of this on her own. She gives me the great privilege of being her mom, a gift which is not lost on me.

Caleb graduated high school in May, standard fare for a 21 year-old in our state. I was lost, not knowing the next step, until an incredibly attentive friend told me about a day program. I am a support parent for the entire state. I have advocated for countless families for a few decades. But even I didn’t know about this particular program.

Caleb started in July—it’s fabulous. The age ranges are from 21 to 70s and beyond. He goes out into the community for park visits, movies, outreach events, everything you can imagine. He wakes up every morning extremely happy to meet the day.

It’s enough for him. But not enough for me.

So I began a new journey.

For the past six months I have been navigating the horrid, unthinkable, soul-crushing, heart-stopping world of finding a residential home for Caleb. The requirement in my state is that I prove I am physically unable to care for him. On regular visits to three of the specialists who treat me for various ailments, I asked them to write letters stating my health conditions and how they affect my ability to care for Caleb.

The three letters I received listed 18 serious and degenerative conditions. I knew I wasn’t doing well, but I was shocked. If you passed me on the street, I would look like a normal healthy 49 year-old.

Inside, I am rotten, crumbling and more ill than I knew. Genetics? Maybe. Habits? Definitely not. Stress? No question in the world.

I’m not going to list the conditions here but several will cripple me and a few will eventually kill me.

And then what of Caleb? Do I want him rushed into a residential placement in an emergency situation? Hell no. I want to help find him a great place and decorate his room with either what he already has, so he feels comfort, or all new things, so he feels excitement.

Caleb is ferociously attached to me, as I am to him. This break will fully shatter us both.

My goal, therefore, has been to ease him through this. To assist in the process and stay a very active part of his life.

To that end, I gathered up paperwork, met with caseworkers, wrote an excruciating letter about not being able to care for my child. It was reviewed by an entire board.

And they had more questions.

DDSN workers came to my home for “additional questions.” This doesn’t always happen. I questioned and questioned and questioned but was told it was necessary.

The day of the visit, I looked like I normally do. Rachel from Friends top-knot. Clean face but no makeup. Clean clothes but not fancy.

But I failed in a way I hadn’t considered. The house was immaculate. I will tell you, I could have stage 4 cancer and my home would be immaculate. It’s what my family does, no matter the pain or fatigue it causes. Maybe it’s pride, maybe it’s comfort but it’s what we do. Unfortunately, it made me seem to be healthier and stronger than I am.

After the visit, I received a letter stating that Caleb’s application was denied. The reason listed was “other.” I begged for an answer more specific but was told that I have enough support to care for Caleb. I wouldn’t have begun the process if that were remotely true.

So, all of you out there in Neverland, I share this so you know this can happen. Now I must appeal. After more than two decades of fighting for proper supports, school placement, classroom placement, for doctors to listen to me when I know something is wrong, I am sapped.

Why does everything have to be a fight?

I am by nature a peacemaker. I want the world to be happy and fair and kind and accepting of everyone. But this life with Caleb has made me a street fighter; a completely reluctant pacifist street fighter, but one who can throw a heck of a punch.

At six months old I noticed a hole in the crack of Caleb’s bottom. I scheduled an MRI. The day before, with no confirmation call I telephoned to inquire.

“Ma’am, you must not have completed the registration. There is no appointment for your son.”

Adrenaline flooded through me. I had been waiting weeks to see if this terrifying hole was actually a tethered spinal cord. I hadn’t slept. Or breathed.

For the second time in my life, God’s words took the place of my own. I surely could not have conjured the following sentence:

“I don’t know if you have children and if you do, I pray they don’t have special needs, but if they do, I hope that people are kinder to you than you are being to me right now.”

I heard a quiet intake of breath, then a softened voice, “You’re right. I’m so sorry. We can see Caleb next Tuesday at 10:00.”

It ended up being something called a sacral dimple, just a hole. But the process of getting the diagnosis depleted every ounce of energy I had. I scooped up what was left to take care of my two babies, leaving nothing left for me.

Flash-forward 22 years, and you can almost physically see the state of my mind and body. Exhaustion is the slurry at the edge of a dry pond.

After reading the denial letter several times, I spent eight hours on my couch yesterday. Alternating between bent-over sobbing and binge-watching shows that take me to another reality, I gave myself over to the grief. I didn’t used to do this. I used to shove it down, let it fester, take root and then drag my soul to the depths of a dark, gloppy sea for months, years at a time.

I’m smarter now. I gave into it, stared into the abyss and frightened it away. After a nap and a shower, I had shaken the grief off like so many fall leaves.

Today was to be our final visit with Caleb’s developmental pediatrician. We’ve lost all of the pediatric specialists but this one would be a slice on a papercut. I went to shower and put on the mask of false happiness. But when I walked into the bathroom, I said, to the tile floor, “fuck it.”

I picked through the dirty laundry to find the clothes I’d worn the day before. I layered a black sweater over a black wrinkled t-shirt. I twisted my dirty hair into a sad replica of a Rachel top knot. I left the darkened shadows under my eyes untouched. I used no mascara or blush. I wore no earrings. I looked at myself and said, “Well, it is what it is.”

Still, being my parents’ daughter, I walked tall. I made sure that Caleb was freshly shaved, his body and hair properly washed and even applied that bit of gel that keeps his cowlick in place. He was dressed in new, clean clothes that smell like summer. He wore new Adidas sneakers that my extraordinarily kind boyfriend bought him.

We have seen this wonderful doctor since Caleb was two. She walked into the room, took a second look at me and said, “What’s going on?”

Then, “You’re exhausted.”

I told her everything I’ve just told you. She was as confused as me about the denial. She asked to see Caleb one more time and to get him in with some specialists who may help. Her social worker called and offered her help. They are the pixie dust with which Caleb and I have been blessedly sprinkled so many times in 22 years.

Today I begin the appeals process. I will have to scrape energy from long-foraged and scraped cells and do my best for my son once again.

It’s what you do when you are about to land in Neverland.

Photo credit: scrooge-mcduck.wikia.com

 

Pixie Dust at the DMV

Kate Welch4 Comments

As a special needs mom, give me mean, bitchy people any day. I can respond to hate with hate or simmering rage. But kindness. Kindness undoes me. It strips the strong façade from my face and leaves me a shivering mess. People who say they understand rip me apart. It’s not that I don’t want people to be kind. It’s that I have grown to not expect it. When someone is compassionate or sympathetic it leaves me as vulnerable as a new spring leaf in a thunderstorm.

Few strangers have shown unexpected kindness to Caleb and me. When Caleb was four, a woman was in line behind us at a restaurant. Caleb was stimming and talking in high-pitched echolalia. I felt her looking at him, at us, before I ever turned around. After a few tense moments I pulled courage up through my spine and used it to propel me to meet her gaze. I was expecting a reprimand or a nasty stare. Instead, I was met with watering eyes and a smile full of sadness.

“Hi there,” she said. Caleb beamed.

I don’t remember the rest of the conversation but I do remember that she told me she was a pediatric nurse. She said it in the quietest of whispers, with a tilt of her head that tore into my soul. It took a breath from me.

“So you know?” I asked.

“Yes,” she replied.

From the time Caleb was little I learned to look straight ahead rather than make eye contact with anyone. I’ve written before that staring does no good, no matter the situation. Even if Caleb were a neurotypical child having a tantrum, rude stares, whispers and tsks only make a tough situation much worse.

The problem with not making eye contact is that you can miss the kindness as well as the criticism.

Another time we were shown such radical kindness was on Caleb’s Make a Wish trip in 2014. At 18 Caleb chose his favorite place in the world, Orlando. We had several blissful days at Disney World and then tried our luck at Universal. Caleb has never liked anything faster than the Buzz Lightyear ride, so he and I waited on benches in the shade while Sophie rode the tallest one.

Sophie had just finished her freshman year of college but I still worried over her every second. I was also worried because the day was warming up. One of Caleb’s medical conditions is that he can fatally overheat. At midday, the temperatures were cutting it close for him, even though we were under a fan in shade. I kept looking at the exit for the ride, waiting to see Sophie running toward us, because I knew she would. She knew it was getting too hot for him. She would worry so much about him that she wouldn’t even enjoy the ride.

With my head swiveling between Caleb and the exit, I’m sure it wasn’t hard for anyone who was paying attention to connect my worry dots. Most people don’t. The woman sitting next to me did. As usual, I was avoiding her stare, preoccupying myself with a loose thread on Caleb’s t-shirt.

“I can watch him,” she said, laying a very kind, soft hand on my shoulder.

“What?” I asked, sure I had misunderstood.

“Your son. I can tell you’re worried about your daughter. I’ll keep him safe while you go find her.”

Kindness. It created a lump in my throat that made it hard to speak.

As lovely as she was, there was no way I would have ever left Caleb with anyone I didn’t know. Her offer was so pure that it made me want to hug her, even though that would have been social overkill for the moment and it would have simultaneously set Caleb screaming because I was touching a stranger.

“You are so sweet,” I said. “Thank you, but I know she’ll be along any moment.”

Sophie was. I told her the story. She said, “You didn’t even consider it, did you?”

What would life be like in this often violent, turbulent world if we were met with kindness instead of fear?

People who meet Caleb now, when he’s 21, six-feet-two and 240 pounds see a happy, confident young man. They see a kid who laughs at fart jokes and still loves to color and do preschool word searches. I need to learn to see with their eyes.

Since the day he was born in 1996, when he was taken from me at 12 hours old so he could have open-heart surgery in another state, I have lived in fear. I was learning to let it unravel when he was four months old, when I was recovering from the trauma of caring for a critically ill newborn, when I was told he needed another heart surgery, a balloon catheterization. I slipped the cloak of fear back over my shoulders and that time it sank into my blood, my bones.

There are so many children with worse stories. There are so many parents who have lost their children. None of us can compare stories because our paths are so different. But I bet we all have that plasma of fear running through our bodies.

Kindness is the antithesis of fear. Kindness negates worry and smooths over so much negativity. But fear eats kindness for breakfast and spits the bones out from under the door.

I am trying so hard to extricate the fear from my soul. I feel like I’m always holding a breath, waiting for the next diagnosis or injury or outburst. Months, years can go by with little incident but that soul-sucking fear keeps me constantly barely balanced on a precarious log over a rushing river.

As Caleb nears his high school graduation in a few months, I find myself evaluating his life. Milestones can do that, I know. I’m trying to look back through all of the sadness and extricate the kindness and love that has been there all along. I know it was there. I know it’s my interpretations that have extruded and buried that beauty. Maybe there’s comfort in fear, in expecting the next bad thing, since so many bad things have happened.

After 21 years in Neverland, I have to believe that there was so much more pixie dust and kindness than there ever was cruelty and exclusion.  I know how gratingly cringe-worthy my next paragraphs will be. I apologize in advance.

If you find yourself in Neverland, look for the fairies. Look for the pixie dust. Listen for singing from the forest. In my version, I kick Captain Hook in his nose and walk away.

Now that Captain Hook is out of the way, I borrow his periscope and am astonished to see the scales fall from my eyes as I peer through it. Hook used it because his periscope could see everything. It illuminates Caleb’s past and I fall to my knees seeing all of the kindness that I had chosen to not remember.

There are cashiers at our favorite grocery store who go out of their way to greet Caleb. Untold devoted teachers, therapists, doctors, surgeons who have all given their best to help Caleb be as healthy as he is. There’s a wonderful young woman at the restaurant we visit on Saturdays who brings Caleb word search books, crayons and the dressed-up ducks he is obsessed with. We have amazing friends who brought balloons, cake and favors to Caleb’s birthday party without even being asked. These same friends came over when it was snowing in January because they know how it frightens him. They knew they could make him smile when he was scared.

I began writing this blog on a Sunday night, the day before taking Caleb on a past-due trip to the DMV. I had been dreading the crowds, the stares, forgetting one doctor’s signature on a line so small I couldn’t even see it. Within 30 minutes we were handing over the handicapped parking placard forms to the clerk. I had told myself that morning I would only look for kindness for the entire day.

The clerk smiled at us and Caleb smiled back. Our forms were processed in seconds, and then she told me that his state ID expires in July.

“I know,” I said, in my head groaning already, which is definitely not part of looking for kindness.

“We can renew this right now if you’d like.”

Kindness.

We were sent to the picture station where another clerk took about five pictures of Caleb, trying to get one with his eyes open. We waited a moment and then she handed us the new ID, saying, “Good bye, Caleb. It was nice to meet you.”

People turned to stare at her kindness. Caleb did his happy growl. I swear I felt Tinker Bell swirling around our feet.

You can find kindness and pixie dust anywhere if you look hard enough. Even at the DMV.

 

Photo credit: Timothy Kurek

The Realm of Forgotten Siblings

Kate Welch7 Comments

We know that life with a special needs child drains marriage, friendships, extended family, and careers. Another struggle hid in shadows from me until now, 21 years into the journey. While I was so busy managing therapies, multiple specialists, chronic illnesses, and constant challenges with a child who needs so much, my daughter Sophie, only 17 months older than Caleb, was often left to her own.

At 18 months old, Caleb had nine hours of therapies every week at our home. Nine hours doesn’t seem like much but, as many of you know, it was exhausting. The speech, occupational and physical therapists used play therapy to engage Caleb. I was supposed to watch everything they did so I could practice with him until their next visit. Totally immersed in a new world, I didn’t realize that to Sophie, these wonderful people were playing with her brother and excluding her.

One cold February morning, when two therapists were setting up their toys to begin Caleb’s session, three year-old Sophie crawled under the kitchen table and began meowing. In a flash I understood the toll that all of the Caleb-centered activity was taking on my other baby. It fractured my heart and I immediately moved the therapies to a center, where Caleb went with the therapist while I played games with Sophie in the waiting room. Whatever choice I made, I was failing one of my children at any given moment.

For Caleb’s first four years, he and Sophie were best friends. When Sophie had play dates, Caleb would parallel play, happy to be around other kids. Sophie and Caleb liked the same TV shows and loved to do crafts with me or chase each other around the playground. Sophie was endlessly patient with her brother, whose steps would never be as quick or as assured as hers.

A change slipped in like wind beneath a door when Sophie turned five. She invited some friends over. They climbed the stairs and one girl said, “Can your weird brother stay downstairs?”

I felt my heart stop. My breath stop. Sophie looked to me with pleading eyes.

In time-lapse video in my head, I remember keeping Caleb downstairs, physically restraining him as he grabbed onto the handrail of the staircase while he screamed, wailing for his sister. Her bedroom door shut with the click of the lock. Caleb then ran around the downstairs, inhumanly howling for half an hour.

I made one of many parenting mistakes. I said to the group, “Please let Caleb be with you for just a few minutes. He’s just curious and then he’ll come back down with me.”

I waited at the base of the stairs, fight-or-flight breathing, digging my nails into my palms so they bled, hoping he might be accepted and that Sophie could have friends who understood.

Five month-minutes later, the three kids came down. Now I went into panic mode.

“Is everything okay? Did you want a snack?”

“No, said the oldest, “we don’t want to play here.”

“Let me go get Caleb, then you can go back upstairs.”

There was no answer, just the soft closing of the front door. When I got to Sophie, her face was red, balled fists trying to squeegee off tears.

The next year, in another neighborhood, Caleb’s special ed bus arrived ten minutes before the one Sophie rode home from her school. We waited on the front porch, rocking in wooden chairs and waiting for Sophie to walk the quarter mile to our house. On this sunny blue-skied spring afternoon, I felt unreasonably optimistic and decided to walk with the other moms and their children to the bus stop.

After the hiss of the air brakes, Sophie jumped off and ran to me.

“Carolyn asked me to come play!” she said, breathless in that happy way kids are when something unexpected happens. “Can I go?”

Sophie usually had to complete her homework before any play dates but this was her first invitation in the new neighborhood so I said, “Go have a good time, honey,” and took her book bag from her. She happily skipped off to join Carolyn.

Caleb started to yowl. With the high-pitched voice of 22Q, he screamed, the peals echoing down the street. His body went limp and he refused to move, like a block of wet, melting concrete. Then anger contorted him into an unmovable tree trunk.

Sophie pretended not to hear. Other moms stepped away from us, sheltering their children. I picked up my ramrod-straight screaming boy and carried him the quarter mile home, eyes straight ahead, tears wearing well-traveled tracks down my cheeks. Sophie was never invited to that girl’s home again and I later learned that we were the gossip at that night’s neighborhood swim meet.

In yet another new neighborhood in another state, kids kept riding their bikes through our backyard which made our German Shepherd bark, which made Caleb smack himself in the head with such force that he often drew blood. I would run out and ask them to please not ride through our yard, but kids are kids. I became that mom on the street and no one wanted to come to our home.

I then implemented Girl’s Day. One day a semester I would keep Sophie home from school for breakfast and lunch out and a trip to the mall or museum or wherever she wanted to go. It was a refreshing day for both of us. I also allowed her one day per semester where she could ask to stay home, no questions asked.

On her first day of sixth grade, Caleb broke his femur at school. Transported to the hospital by ambulance and immediately sent to surgery, I had no way to notify Sophie because in 2006 she didn’t have her own cell phone. All I could do was ask the school to tell her that she was to walk home from the bus stop and let herself into the house, which I would normally tell her in the morning. Terrified, she raced home and called me from the landline. The next four months were excruciating for all of us and Sophie was once again forced to do more by herself than she should have at that age.

Irrespective of Caleb, our home was not a happy one. Watching Forrest Gump with Sophie, during the scene where Jenny and Forrest pray in the cornfield for God to make her a bird so she could fly far, far away, I paused the movie and took Sophie’s hands in mine. “You do this,” I said. “You use all of the amazing talents and intelligence and drive that you have and you fly wherever you want to go.”

When Sophie was only eight she told me that when she grew up she wanted to get married, get a cat and buy a house with a basement so she could make an apartment for Caleb. In that instant, her struggles and sacrifices tore through me like adrenaline.

“No, sweetheart,” I said in one of those moments that you remember and only then understand its importance. “You go live your life. I’ll take care of Caleb. He’s my job, not yours.”

The resolve on her face collapsed into a flush of relief. She knew the importance of the commitment she had made to me and when I lifted it away, her entire demeanor melted, bringing back the face of a child who had been wrestling with a very adult decision.

I have many friends who have asked their healthy children to take over their special need sibling’s care when the parents are no longer able to. I so understand this impulse. I feel the crushing pain of wondering who will care for Caleb when I am unable, and I empathize with those who crave the peace of knowing that their most vulnerable child will be cared for with love. I don’t judge any parent or family who chooses this path.

Sophie graduated college this past fall and is planning to enter the medical field. Though she will never be responsible for her brother’s daily needs, I have no doubt that she will change the world for those in need, honoring him in a way I never knew existed.

I fully realize that not every sibling will have the interest or aptitude to work in their special need sibling’s medical field. I’m sharing this to give hope to all of us in Neverland. Hope that the children who have such heavy childhoods might create incredibly fulfilling adult lives.

We all do the best we can every day. When there’s nothing left, we have to dig way down deep to find the energy to give to our other children. We won’t always succeed but the times that we do bring rain to a desert, even if it’s just enough to bring one desert flower into bloom.

The Most Important Thing Speechless Gets Right (photo credit ABC)

Image Kate Welch1 Comment

 

Last fall, ABC launched the sitcom Speechless, the story of a family whose eldest son has cerebral palsy. Fantastic writers and gifted actors bring the marvelous DiMeo family crackling to life in each episode. Most importantly, they hired Micah Fowler to play J.J. Micah actually has cerebral palsy and is playing a character with cerebral palsy. Shocker.

Beyond the spot-on social commentary of how the disabled are often treated, viewers are allowed to peek behind the curtain and see the equally spot-on representation of the impact a disabled child has on the entire family.

I adore that this show chose to focus on the strength of J.J.’s parents’ marriage. Even though the divorce rate for a family with a special needs child is 80%, the real-life couples I’ve met who are in that golden 20% deal with their struggles together, with humor, unwavering support of each other, and a sobering acceptance of their situation, without devaluing the need to seek out everything their family needs.

Some critical reviews of mother Maya DiMeo have denoted that she is shrill and overbearing. She is. Most of us special needs moms didn’t start out that way but by the time our kids are teenagers, we have graduated with honors from the school of Learn How to Bitch Loudly for Your Child. In the pilot Maya uproots the family so they can live in a better school district for J.J. Been there. We do what is required to give our kids the best services available. Maya also brings a healthy dose of giggle-inducing levity by sneaking everyone into a country club for the day or by writing ideas on the walls of their decaying house, which she somehow makes charming.

My personal review of father Jimmy DiMeo (John Ross Bowie) has him falling in a close second to This is Us’ Jack Parsons (Milo Ventimiglia). Both men are completely devoted to their families. They are strong role models who support each person in the family with exactly what they need in that moment. What sets Jimmy apart from Jack is a sadness honed by strength. At the nexus of every special needs family is a crumbling fault line, which is a daily reminder that things didn’t go as planned. Jimmy deftly navigates that line and is there to balance his family and be the bridge they can traverse if needed.

J.J. is a regular young man and he yearns to be treated as one. He is funny and smart and wants to drink beer at high school parties. He has emotions and dreams and he gets hurt as easily as any of us. We suffer with him through the heartbreak of his first crush. As he processes this loss, we see a resignation in his eyes that there will be many more to come. I’m hoping this show will demonstrate to the rest of the world that people like J.J. are able to have relationships.

So often, people have said to me that Caleb must always be so sweet and happy, because he often is and that has been the paintbrush used to whitewash those with disabilities for a very long time. Caleb, like J.J., is human. We have good days and bad days and some days where we just don’t give a crap about anything. So do they.

On the first day of eighth grade, Caleb’s teacher was reciting the classroom rules when Caleb said quietly, “Who cares?” She was appalled, gave him a negative review for the day and wrote me a letter. I couldn’t help but laugh, thinking that I felt the same way in eighth grade. This was a remarkably appropriate reaction, spoken with perfect sentence structure so after telling him not to do this again, I didn’t punish him. This is the side of disability that Speechless is so powerfully showcasing.

Middle sibling Ray DiMeo (Mason Cook) is an accurately portrayed mess of neuroses and a painful need to be super-successful in everything he does. Siblings of those with special needs often place unrealistic expectations on themselves to be the best at everything, trying to offer their parents a child who effortlessly brings home straight As, awards and trophies. These siblings are often at risk for conditions like anorexia, anxiety and depression.

Youngest sibling Dylan (Kyla Kenedy) entered the world as third in line in the DiMeo need tree and she chose to create her own path rather than try to follow either of her brothers. Dylan is a talented athlete. She has a strong vein of sarcasm, eyes that miss nothing, and is able to ignore those who are unkind to her brother; though I’m sure she has a catalog of every offense stuffed under her mattress right next to her nun chucks.

My favorite character is Kenneth (Cedric Yarbrough) who plays J.J.’s aide. We all dream of a person like Kenneth to help our kids. Maya wasn’t comfortable with Kenneth in the beginning but when she saw how kind and respectful Kenneth was when helping J.J. in the bathroom, she nodded and stepped out of the room. It’s difficult to let any child go, but when you are the parent of a vulnerable child, oh, it’s really hard. Speechless has shown a long but lovely journey of Maya’s trust of Kenneth. They have also learned to tolerate each other for J.J.’s sake.

Kenneth sees J.J. as a whole person who needs some assistance. He functions as J.J.’s voice, reading from his speech board to whomever J.J. wishes to speak. J.J. feels that Kenneth brings much-needed social interaction with his fellow students and the two are a glorious team. Speechless has graciously interwoven Kenneth into the fabric of the DiMeo family, which brings me to the point of this blog.

At the root of every child with special needs is family. Without it, none of us could survive. I have been blessed by the most amazing parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Without hesitation, whenever I’ve asked, they have been right by my side. They have babysat for days, held Caleb’s hand at my brother’s wedding so I could dance, sat by him at parties so I could talk to everyone. A million times, they have listened whenever I need to talk or laugh or cry.

My friends and I have talked about how challenging it is for anyone to care for our kids. It’s very difficult to step into routines that to us are subconscious but to others are completely overwhelming. Some of our kids have frightening conditions. Oftentimes, the only souls brave and willing enough to attempt this feat are our family. I have no idea where I would be without these angels of mine, but I know that I would not be upright.

At birth, Caleb was hospitalized for three weeks after open-heart surgery. My mom and dad kept my 17 month-old Sophie for that entire time. I missed Sophie so much that it physically hurt, yet I needed to be at Caleb’s bedside. My mom would bring Sophie to visit and I swear my daughter never looked so happy and content. My mom mothered my baby so I could care for my other baby.

Years later, on last-minute notice, my mom would pick Caleb up from school, even though when he was little and saw her instead of me, he would hit at the air in front of his face because it was a break in his routine. She would go again whenever I asked, a truly brave act considering she walked right by the school principal to retrieve her flailing grandson.

Caleb didn’t understand birthdays until the year he turned seven. At his first-ever party, my friends and I had pizza at a playground and for a blissful 10 minutes, it went great. Then Caleb fell off playground equipment, dragged his face down hard metal bars and broke his wrist. He had been so happy a second before that a fog of shock descended over us. My mom arrived at this exact moment and quickly drove us to the doctor, allowing me to sit in the backseat with my wailing son and traumatized daughter.

Two days before my ex-husband and I were to travel to Aruba, Caleb fell off another playground. This injury necessitated two surgeries and an excruciating six-month recovery. My mom and her two sisters had already planned to babysit so they arrived as planned. My ex took the trip. I stayed and it took all four of us to care for Caleb that week. At the end of each day, my amazing family refilled my coffers with laughter, love and support.

I’ve believed throughout Caleb’s life that some choose to see him as less than perfect. Some keep my son at a distance and assume that as a parent I must as well. They are so wrong. Behind many disabled people is a family who loves them fiercely. By exposing the underpinnings of the DiMeo family, Speechless is demonstrating to the neurotypical world that love isn’t defined by ability nor is family limited by biology.

The DiMeos are not representative of every special needs family, just like any other show about family doesn’t apply to everyone. What Speechless provides is profound glimpses of ordinary family life to which we can all relate. That is the beauty of this show. By several episodes in, J.J.’s cerebral palsy is about as important in the family dynamic as the overgrown front yard and the walls with handwriting all over them.

This is the strength and beauty and quiet message of Speechless. I hope it has a long run.

The Side Order of Anxiety and Depression You May Receive When You Are the Caregiver of a Loved One with Anxiety and Depression

Kate Welch5 Comments

 

Anxiety and depression can quickly siphon the strength of the strongest person. Caring for a loved one who suffers from the crippling effects of these disorders can be debilitating for the caregiver. If your loved one also has special needs, like my son, these challenges are magnified and may render you limited in any help you can provide.

As a caregiver, the inordinate stress of caring for someone with many needs makes you vulnerable to your own set of anxiety and depression. When you are the sole caregiver, it is imperative to be a steadying force to help your loved one navigate frightening emotions.

Unfortunately I completely fail in this regard most of the time.

My son Caleb is 20 years old with a primary diagnosis of 22Q Deletion Syndrome and a related diagnosis of autism. He tests cognitively around age three to five which significantly complicates the level of care he requires. It’s difficult to look at a six-foot tall young man and remember that inside he is truly a tiny child who hasn’t developed the coping skills one would expect of a young adult.

Caleb has struggled with anxiety for two decades. Anxiety and depressive disorders run in both sides of our family so he was already predisposed to them, but our family life situation helped to create a constant state of anxiety for Caleb, his sister and me. I was in an abusive marriage with his father until I left when he was 16. There was no adequate way to explain the concept of divorce to him, so Caleb now thinks whenever any situation isn’t working that a divorce, of any kind, is coming his way, which raises his anxiety level.

Prior to the divorce, Caleb’s anxiety over his father’s verbal attacks on me became anxiety over anticipated abandonment. When these attacks would begin, Caleb’s older sister Sophie would find him and the two of them would hide in a closet together until my ex-husband stopped screaming. When Sophie went to college, even though Caleb and I lived on our own by then, he lost his beloved protector and his anxiety level climbed because he felt so vulnerable without her. I now take Caleb to a wonderful male therapist twice a month but it has taken him four years to try to process the horror of divorce and a splintered family.

Before Caleb was born, I already struggled with significant anxiety and depression of my own. Caring for him has accelerated my own conditions, and I now tend to fall quickly into the pit of depression and episodes of crippling anxiety. Ten years ago, when Caleb was in a body cast recovering from a broken femur, the inordinate stress of his care caused me such anxiety that I went blind for 90 minutes on two occasions. It still happens occasionally but thankfully for no more than 10 minutes at a time now. A few years ago a very intense panic attack sent me to the ER and the hospital kept me overnight.

Medications don’t help me, but they are the only option for Caleb because he lacks the communication skills to be talked out of his anxiety. When something frightens him, he will ask me questions about it, about every 60 seconds, until it has passed. His doctors and I are very careful to be sure he’s not overmedicated, but his dosages are higher than I would like because anxiety can otherwise pilfer good days from him.

We’ve tried using picture-exchange cards with some success and his therapist has taught us some creative communication skills. Both of these coping mechanisms are limited in approach, so when something new pops up that causes Caleb anxiety, it’s like I’m learning a new language. Delays in coping create more anxiety for both of us.

I try to remind myself that beyond the tiny piece missing piece of Caleb’s 22nd chromosome and the autism and mental retardation that he is in some ways a typical 20 year-old young man. He has no interest in talking about feelings with his mom. He isn’t interested in breathing techniques or yoga. Unlike neurotypical 20 year-olds, though, when Caleb is extremely upset he hits himself in the face with such strength that he draws blood. He screams and retreats. It’s very difficult to find a balance and for me to know how to help him.

Caleb and I are connected in a way that transcends most parent/child relationships. Because his verbal communication is so limited, I am his voice. I know what he’s thinking at almost any time, from nonverbal cues and from spending all of my time with him. I’ve been told that my aura merges with his when he needs help. Consequently, I can sense when a situation arises that will cause him undue anxiety, which raises my own anxiety, which Caleb feels and then reacts to. It’s the worst kind of cycle and it leaves us both exhausted.

Along with depression and anxiety, being the caregiver of a young adult with special needs often leads to isolation and confinement, which causes another level of depression. Caleb is charming and funny, but all social situations exhaust him to varying degrees. Disruption of routine causes a full-body meltdown. We live in a part of the country that rarely sees snow, but when it happens, the entire county shuts down for days, interrupting routine, school and activities that Caleb enjoys. Over the past four days he has said, “I hate snow. Snow go home” on repeat for all of his waking hours.

I’m sharing this here so that medical and psychological professionals who care for those with special needs can get a glimpse into why the caregiver maybe didn’t shower or put on clean clothes before an appointment. We may look older than our years. Many of us struggle with sleep disorders.

Research is building on caregiver stress, but we need more. Caregivers are often diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and anxiety disorders. The divorce rate when a couple has a child with special needs is 80%. Whatever we are doing right now isn’t working.

Most of us were not paragons of mental health to begin with. Then the ones whom we love more than life, through no fault of their own, drain away whatever reserves we have left. Most of us put a brave but fake smile on when we talk to others because if we let a glimpse of our inner turmoil surface we would completely fall apart. We can often rally for big events, like surgeries or illnesses, and then we collapse in a mess of our own. It’s not a winning situation.

Raising and loving a child with special needs is already a situation rife with challenge. Of the dozens of families whom I have been privileged to meet over the past two decades, most of the parents tell me that they already struggled with both anxiety and depression before their medically fragile child was born. Disappointingly, having a child with special needs doesn’t automatically imbue you with the strength which will be required. If anything, a child with so many needs simply reveals in harsh relief the fissures which already exist in both an individual and a family.

What can caregivers do to strengthen themselves and give their special needs loved one the best platform for a successful life? I really wish there were a simple, one-size-fits-all answer. One thing most families struggle with is finding appropriate, dependable help and assistance. I have no idea how to accomplish this.  Respite isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity for families who are burdened with so many doctor appointments, behavioral challenges, illnesses, injuries, surgeries and the constant stress of atypical days. We need to learn to ask for and receive help, another endeavor in which I constantly fail.

If we are struggling with anxiety, depression or a paralyzing mix of both, we need to get help for ourselves. This help can be medications, rescue medications, therapy and support groups. I can’t overstate how much it helps to be able to talk with those who fully understand. You will find that you all speak the same language and this in itself is relaxing.

Because we are so often “on” for those around us, we need to find somewhere to release all of our own emotions. I keep two lists on Netflix: one of movies that make me cry and one of movies that make me laugh. Some days it’s hard to pick which one I need, but laughter and tears can get so many ugly emotions out and refresh our souls.

Every caregiver of someone who suffers from anxiety and depression needs to take care of themselves so that they can provide care without it draining them of the energy they need to provide that level of care. Each caregiver needs to decide exactly what they need to be able to function as a super-caregiver, and then seek out whatever it is they need to be that person.

Our loved ones deserve nothing less.

The Unwelcome Surprise Awaiting Parents of Young Kids with Special Needs

Kate WelchLeave a comment

Parents of young children with special needs already know their lives can’t be planned with any accuracy. Illnesses, behaviors, school and social problems pop up like fire ant hills. The one thing upon which we can depend is a team of medical specialists.

That is, until the child becomes a young adult and is forced to find an entirely new team. I never knew this would happen. It wasn’t in the manual. So I’d like to help prepare other parents for what is to come.

Your child can be fired by their pediatric doctors when they turn 18.

By the time your child turns 18 or 20, you are fully dependent on your team and have an internal GPS of the children’s hospital. You know exactly how many minutes it takes in traffic to get to the office. You know the quietest place to sit in the waiting room. You bring your 20-pound binder with a full list of questions to each appointment.

Before Caleb’s 1996 birth, I don’t think I even knew that children’s hospitals existed. I must have driven by them and looked past them. After 20 years, we have now visited several children’s hospitals in five different states. They all attempt to be bright and colorful but there is nothing bright or colorful about having to be there. I saw the halls and grandiose seating areas through a grayed-out Instagram filter.

On my first visit to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to visit my very sick baby boy, his face was contorted in a grimace of pain. Red, green and yellow plastic tubes stuck through his skin into his heart and lungs, EEG leads were tangled everywhere, and his hand was taped to a board to keep an IV in place. Numb, I watched as babies were wheeled in and out of the pediatric cardiac ICU while mechanical beeps rippled about me in Doppler waves.

A few days later I met the first of many specialists. I didn’t know there were so many kinds of doctors, or that they had pediatric counterparts.

When you find out how many specialists your child may need, the effect is similar to waking up in a strange place. You should recognize your surroundings but all you feel is panic and fear. In Caleb’s lifetime, he has needed a regular pediatrician, general pediatrician, pediatric cardiologists, immunologists, infectious disease specialists, neurologists, endocrinologists, developmental pediatricians, orthopedic surgeon, general surgeon, psychologist, regular therapist, otolaryngologist, plus a host of speech, physical and occupational therapists.

Over 20 years, I made the transition from shock that my child needed so many doctors to complete dependence on them. I went from not wanting to be in a children’s hospital to never wanting to leave. With an average of 55 visits each year, these doctors were integral for Caleb and me. I learned their language to the point that several asked me if I’m a doctor.

In 2006, Caleb broke his femur while trying to be Buzz Lightyear. The poor kid doesn’t have reflexes to break any fall, so when he landed from a height of 18 inches, his femur snapped about three-quarters of the way up. After arriving at the hospital by ambulance, I was running alongside his gurney when a nurse told me there were two Army medics who would like to follow along. I welcomed them into the fray of Caleb’s life and rattled off his 24 different diagnoses. At one point, one of the medics stopped and asked the nurse if I was a doctor. Smiling sadly, she said, “No. These moms know everything.”

I was flattered and repulsed by her response. I never wanted to be that mom. I wanted to be the mom who was cheering on my son the quarterback or chaperoning science fairs and school dances. But that wasn’t meant to be.

When Caleb turned 18, we were both still completely dependent on all of the pediatric specialists who had helped him so much. We were oblivious that this time was coming to an end. I ignored the stares of parents with neurotypical babies or young children as we sat in the same waiting room. I had started to notice there were no other people Caleb’s age but it just didn’t click the way it should have.

Caleb’s pediatrician was the first to tell me that she could no longer treat him. It was a gut punch because she was trained to know that when he presented with a rash, it might be staph. Caleb has always been a zebra and the learning curve for doctors is at least two years. Not only were we losing an adored doctor who understood and could appropriately treat Caleb, we had to start all over with a new doctor. It felt like a seventh-grade breakup.

The flip side of medical professionals thinking I’m a doctor is that new ones almost seem to suspect that I might have Munchausen By Proxy. Or they know I’m not a doctor and think I’m trying to make a diagnosis. Caleb has been my life’s work–I can see in my head how all the odd symptoms might add up to something only Dr. House could find.

Knowing that anyone might think I could either cause or imagine some of the terrible things Caleb has fought makes me physically ill, but I have learned to persevere with my listing of his symptoms and then wait patiently while they are confirmed. This usually culminates in respect from the doctor and then we can all go back to the most important job of caring for Caleb, but it’s a game I’m really tired of playing. I’m not a doctor but I know my kid and his history better than anyone else.

Caleb mentally tests around age three to five, so he felt comfortable in an office with young children. He relates to them. He loved the bright colors in children’s hospitals, which made me belatedly realize the décor is for the kids, not the parents. He was so comfortable there and now he has to contend with drab adult offices.

After the pediatrician fired us, then came the cardiologist. Understanding the trauma of losing a trusted doctor, they hired a transitional doctor to bridge the gap between pediatric and adult care, for which I am incredibly grateful. I wish more practices would do this.

We have now been officially fired from all of the pediatric specialists. Most of them were able to recommend an adult counterpart, but the most difficult doctor to find was a primary care provider. When I mentioned that Caleb has autism, several offices told me they weren’t accepting new patients. I finally called my personal doctor, who had never met Caleb, and was told that he, too, was not accepting new patients.

Exhausted and frustrated, I told the nurse, “Before you say no, you need to know that Caleb is every doctor and dentist’s favorite patient. He is so well-behaved. He’s sweet and cooperative and I will always be with him.”

She was silent, so I continued, “He has so many specialists that all I really need is a doctor to treat ear infections and maybe the flu. For everything else, I will take him to a specialist.”

The nurse spoke to the doctor, who finally agreed to take Caleb on as a patient. I thanked him profusely at our first appointment and he told me he was amazed at what a wonderful young man Caleb is. I smiled. I already knew.

Caleb is truly an exception. I have friends whose kids with autism are violent or need to be sedated for a routine tooth cleaning. As their kids age out of pediatrics, they are being met with outright refusals for treatment. Where on earth can they go when no one will treat their young adult? I understand the dilemma for doctors, and I understand the frustration for parents. I have no clue where to find the answer to this one.

I don’t think anyone seeks out the comfort we find in children’s hospitals but when you are suddenly pushed out the door, it makes you realize that things didn’t unfold like you hoped. You dreamed that your child would be cured, or that he would be the one to break all the rules. In many cases like my own, you leave the children’s hospital wearing a heavy cloak of dread for the future. You are now the parent of an adult with special needs and the end is nowhere in sight. I think this is another reason why leaving the pediatric world behind is so painful.

So here is my advice to every parent whose special needs child is around age 16. Start the search now for providers who might treat your soon-to-be young adult. It feels like it will never happen but it will and you need to be prepared. As the infectious disease doctor who fired us told me, “I’m a specialist in little kid issues, Caleb needs someone who understands the challenges he will face as an adult.”