When Lydia was about a year old and while she was still on oxygen for her heart and sleeping in our room, I would wake up several times a night to put the nasal cannula back in her little nose and quiet alarms. I was getting very little sleep and my stress levels were very high. It was winter, and she had barely made it through a terrifying RSV episode (even after getting shots that cost $1000 a month and were supposed to protect her). We had just bought our house and were living on a shoestring while I was trying desperately to scrape together some semblance of stability for my two little boys. I noticed that I had started grinding my teeth at night, so I went to the dentist to ask for a mouthguard. As I sat in his chair after making my request, the cheerful old man said, “Now what do you have to be so stressed about? We all have stress and most of it is just in our heads. Let me tell you a story.” He proceeded to tell me that once he thought he had a brain tumor, and he was really worried about it for several days, but then he got it checked out, and it was nothing! See! Stress is like that!
I am not usually a very outspoken person unless pushed to the brink, but I looked that man in the eye, and said calmly, “Would you like to know what I’ve been dealing with?” 👀 And I told him. I told him I had just had a daughter diagnosed with DS at birth who had then needed 2 open heart surgeries… and I didn’t—couldn’t even BEGIN to touch the rest of it—but that was enough.
“I don’t know what I would do in that situation,” he said, before agreeing to size my mouthguard.
And friends, I haven’t been to the dentist, since 🤣
This is all to say… when someone says they are stressed… BELIEVE THEM.
Also, set your boundaries. People don’t know what they don’t know. If it’s too hard, it’s too hard. Period. You deserve respect.
August - Autism diagnosis
September- New school, evaluations, & new therapies
October- Other life joys
November- Pacemaker surgery
This life is a marathon, not a sprint. And I’ve learned you have to have a really good team, and the number one player you gotta take care of… is you.
Happy World Mental Health Day 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
