My Child Was Vulnerable Long Before the Pandemic. But the Wait for a Vaccine Is Excruciating
Whenever my 9-year-old seizes, he’s coming out of sleep—as though his brain gets stuck in an elevator between the basement of REM and the lobby of consciousness. Around 5 a.m., always on a day I couldn’t predict, his 50-pound frame starts to tap and jerk, keeping an awful rhythm, and, for too many seconds, he cannot say his name.
Seizures are the latest in a litany of medical and developmental challenges that have puzzled his doctors for the last seven years, beginning with the morning his blood sugar dropped to 27 mg/dL. A normal range is around 70-100 mg/dL. We have medication and genetic test results, glucometers and nutrition plans, but we have no guarantees. My husband and I take turns easing liquid medicine into his mouth twice a day, pricking his finger when his energy lags, and blending a protein smoothie for him at night. We follow the rules, try to make a contract with our boy’s beautiful brown body. But each time he seizes, we are left without recourse. We hold him and push record on a phone, as though gathering evidence could ever be enough.
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I thought we’d be in a different place by now. It’s a phrase I don’t dare say aloud following his seizures or doctors’ appointments. It would strip me down to my last skin, expose me as a mother. Was I a fool for having expectations, for assuming that medicine or prayer or time would be enough?
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Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Taylor Harris Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 nationpod Source Type: news
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