My facebook feed has been full of posts about Leelah Alcorn, a teenage transgirl who committed suicide by stepping out in front of a semi on the highway. I have a friend with a trans child who felt this story hit her like a physical blow in the chest. It shows that the alternative of a […]
Category Archives: Health
The Kender Report
It’s been a while, so I figured it was past time for another post on Kender. October was a busy time for us, with so many birthdays to celebrate. A’Kos also has made some new friends. He is just as happy to calm my friend’s autistic children as he is to work with Kender. He […]
Bad Comedy
I’ve been told before that I should write a book about my life. All the strange and weird things that cross my path and keep changing my fate ought to make for interesting reading. Right now, I think it would make a bad comedy, to use a friend’s words. Suspension of disbelief in the audience […]
The Kender Project: A Roundtable IEP
My first children were a set of triplets born at 26 weeks gestation, 14 weeks early. We went from happy young couple planning to start a family to being thrown straight into the crazy and confusing world of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, times three. Because they were both triplets and micropreemies, we got a […]
A’Kos Goes to School
I realized after we got home that I didn’t get any pictures of A’Kos and Kender today. I’ll have to remedy that next week! Today was A’Kos’ first trip to Foster where we have our homeschool co-op classes. Kender has been waiting to go back to Foster ever since the last term ended, and the […]
The Kender Report — Surgery Dog Edition
Yesterday afternoon I saw an older man and a little girl walking down the sidewalk next to a busy street. He had a walking stick with him, a little more than waist-high, with a leather loop hanging about halfway down. He moved slowly but steadily along in his yellow jacket, just out for a stroll. […]
Dermatographia
I recently discovered that I have dermatographia. As with Brenden’s cold urticaria diagnosis, it is so obvious in retrospect that I can’t believe it took me so long to recognize it. I was absent-mindedly scratching at my leg one day a few weeks ago when I suddenly noticed the area I was scratching was covered in […]
Fake a Disability
“Hey, did you know that [insert disability here] people get to [insert special access here]? We could do that, too, because the government says that businesses aren’t allowed to ask questions. Here, you pretend to have [insert disability here] and I’ll [get fake certification/baldly lie/pretend nothing’s wrong], and then we’ll get [insert special access here], […]
When I Grow Up…
My Aunt Anne might be coming to visit me this month. Just the thought of her visit is driving me nuts. I have idolized my aunt since I was a little girl. Unlike my mother’s family, I never saw my dad’s family very often, so every time I got to see any of them it […]
Borderline
Everything medical in our lives (except for Kender!) seems to be borderline. The boundary line (ohai Loki!) between “clinical” and “not a problem” is not always a happy place to live. Being on the boundary line means that medical treatment almost always can help, but doctors won’t diagnose or treat anything until it crosses that […]