Thursday, December 11, 2008

ENT follow up appointment and nurse encounter

Well we had our ENT follow up appointment today from the surgery. Everything looks great! Carsten's ENT doctor is really nice and I told him that Carsten has improved with his breathing, snoring, and drainage! I don't know if I ever put this on the blog but when we went in for the T&A surgery the doc said "okay so we're going to do the adenoids today right?" I was like, "uh no, I thought you said BOTH adenoids and tonsils!" He had written down to do only the adenoids. Well, long story short, he did them both for us and removed the cyst in his throat. He really didn't have to do them both but I think he did it just to be nice:) So, for us that means the tonsils are out of the way and no more battling them and their complications for the next 5 or 6 years!

The appointment went great other than the nurse who called us into the room and asked me a bunch of questions including, "He's Downs right?" I mean, come on! I am SO tired of that ignorant question. ESPECIALLY in the medical community!! Usually I'm not a huge "politically correct" person but I guess having Carsten has really changed me. I was proud of myself though, today, for the first time I corrected her. I said, "No, he's not "Downs", he HAS Down Syndrome!" Oh, I did it yesterday too in Wal-Mart with the photo lady though I'm not quite sure she heard me because I said it under my breath:) I think the question catches me off guard anyway because most of the time I'm not going around thinking about my son having Down Syndrome. To me, he's just Carsten. Why do people have to point it out all the time, do they want a prize for guessing that he has Down Syndrome? It's really pretty obvious. Seriously, sometimes I completely forget he has Down Syndrome then that word will come to my mind and I'm like wow, he really does have Down Syndrome but my gosh it just doesn't seem like it, he's just my son, my Carsten, my baby! I am just as happy, proud, totally in love with my son as any other mom.

Back to the question, I try to remind myself that people just don't know any better. Most of them did not take Introduction to Mental Retardation in college like I was blessed to and most of them have not been around people with disabilities or gone to OT school. But even Chad is sensitive to it and he's not an OT! So, I have decided to become a little more assertive, yet gentle, to remind people that it is a person WITH Down syndrome, they are not the syndrome themselves! It would be like asking someone with Cerebral Palsy, are they Cerebral Palsy? No! They have Cerebral Palsy, it is just a part of them like having brown hair or green eyes. Okay, my rant is over, I'm not mad I just want to educate people so that when they have these encounters with other families, they will say it in the most respectful way. I'd like to hear what other people think about this, especially you moms with children with disabilities. Do you correct them or just let it go? This has been a quandary for me for quite some time now. I guess I'm really amazed at how MANY people say "that Downs person", "is he Downs", or yes, even "downsy" before! Am I being too picky?

Oh and by the way, Carsten's photo shoot (you could call it) was absolutely FANTASTIC! You will have to wait and see the pictures though, I don't want to ruin Christmas cards, if I ever get them out!:)

Much love,
Momma Bridges

2 comments:

Kim said...

I don't think you are being too sensitive about it at all. My mom is a special education teacher so I hear her talking about different learning disabilities and special needs. I know that is totally not the same as being the mother or sibling of a child with specials needs though. Still, I get offended when I hear people insensitively talking about disabilities and special needs. I wish people would really stop and think about what they say.

Unknown said...

My sister doesn't like the term DISabled because to it implies that she is not able to do things, which we all know she is perfectly able to do things... she just might require assistance. She would prefer to be called visually impaired. Like you said she is Beth and she happens to have a visual impairment, she isn't JUST blind!! I feel you Kari!