Anxiety can be crippling.
My little rockstar works SO dang hard.
Seriously, having a child with a disability truly makes you see just how much we all take for granted.
One of Audrey’s biggest struggles right now is her anxiety. It is rearing it’s head a lot lately and I’m on a mission to make it better for her. Yesterday we had her annual spine X-ray… we do this to ensure her scoliosis isn’t getting any worse. From the second we sat in the waiting room, her body tightened… her nerves and anxiety took over with every sound on the intercom, every minute we had to wait for her name to be called.
My husband and I both tried to calm her with snacks, books, playful hugs and even a walk outside.
Nothing worked. So we waited some more fully knowing that this probably wasn’t going to go well.
Then I saw a woman walk out and call “Audrey Alves,” it was our turn! I sighed with relief seeing the kind smile on the technician’s face thinking to myself that it may just be okay. After all, she seemed to have patience and a softness to her which is not always the case in these situations.
She waited as I calmly told Audrey what they needed from her, “to stand still like a big girl so they can take your picture.”
Audrey whined, fussed, cried, moved here body all around attempting to break free from my hold. After many attempts, a few hugs and breaks, we decided that it wasn’t going to happen today.
I left feeling defeated.
ANOTHER challenge I don’t know how to help her with. As I left the office full of frustration and sweat, my head flooded with ideas of who I could reach out to.
As soon as we got home and settled Audrey with her favorite show, I emailed the doctor telling him we weren’t successful with the X-rays. I knew nothing would be fixed right then so I moved on.
Today I emailed multiple specialists and spoke to a few of her therapists. I wrote notes down about it to discuss with her school team and jotted some instances where I see this happening.
Yesterday did not end so great.
Today was a new day. I made the calls, wrote the emails, set up some appointments for me to discuss the issues I’m seeing.
This journey doesn’t get easier. What I have noticed though is the bounce back time on my end is much quicker. I sulked for a bit last night but today I went back into advocating action. It’s not always easy, not anything I would choose, but this sweet girl deserves all my fight.
She continues to amaze me and ended up with a much better day today.
My warrior, my buddy, my person. I wish it wasn’t so hard for her to navigate this world but damn am I proud of her for #KickingCASK.
Kicking CASK 