Some Construction Paper and a Smile

2 Comments May 6, 2014 drworobec

*** This was originally written as a Guest Blog post for Momstown.ca. ***

I believe that parenting is a group effort. And so the saying goes:

So when my 2-year-old daughter was diagnosed with amblyopia last month, I turned to my village.

* As an aside, amblyopia is an eye disorder that involves decreased vision in an eye that otherwise appears normal. In her case, this visual impairment is severe, and she needs glasses and daily eye-patching to ‘teach’ her left eye to function.

Someone suggested making a book for her to illustrate the process of what was happening to her. Brilliant. At just-barely-two, her comprehension is much higher than her verbal communication skills, and a book seemed like the perfect option to explain this experience. So, with some construction paper and a smile, I made her this:

photo-18

And it worked like a charm. It’s her favorite book, we read it multiple times a day, and she gets it. Her glasses are helping, her eye-patching is helping, and we’re gonna be just fine.

photo-17

My Daughter Needs Glasses

6 Comments April 1, 2014 drworobec

***This post was originally written as a Guest Blog post for Momstown.ca.***

We made a trip to the optometrist last week and were told that my daughter likely needs glasses. She’s just turned two…. 25-months-old, only a toddler, still my baby girl. And she needs glasses. I was floored by this, as I never suspected a problem with her vision and I was simply bringing her in for a routine check-up. It’s been on my to-do list for far too long, along with dentist appointments and well-baby exams. But it seems that Spring signals annual appointments around here, and so off to the eye doctor we went.

I’m told that her eyes see very differently, and that we want to give her left eye the best possible chance of developing optimally, for which glasses will help. She will likely need these glasses throughout her childhood, and perhaps forever, depending on how her vision changes as she grows. There were lots of lights, lots of lenses, lots of machines, and lots of tests; and more tests will come in a few weeks when we get her ‘double-checked’ before going the glasses route. But the optometrist was steadfast, thorough, and concise, and told me to prepare for a glasses fitting at the end of April. So prepare, I shall.

Emotion swirled around me as we left the clinic, and I’ve been struggling to make sense of what I’m feeling. Sad? Worried? Nervous? In fact, it’s all of the above and then some. I’m sad for her, as she’ll now need to navigate the world visibly different than her peers- but we will celebrate those differences. I’m worried about potential teasing and bullying- but we will celebrate self-confidence and self-esteem. I’m nervous that her vision will worsen- but we will celebrate the vision that she has.

And then perspective shifts and I see how wonderful this news is- wonderful that it’s not worse, wonderful that it’s treatable, wonderful that she’s healthy. We got an awful cancer scare when she was only a few months old, ironically also involving her eyes, and I have counted my blessings and remembered that dread every day since. She’s my ‘make-me-worry kid’- she was late to walk, she’s late to talk, and I can only imagine what her room will look like when she’s a teenager.

She’s teaching me new lessons about the big picture. Hopefully I’m learning.

AshleyW0018

The Shoulds

2 Comments March 11, 2014 drworobec

***This post was originally written as a Guest Blog post for Momstown.ca.***

I’ve recently been corresponding with another female chiropractor, whom I worked with long, long ago…. I mean, before-I-was-even-a-chiro long ago. She has just had her first baby, and now she’s trying to navigate the challenge that is being a working mom.

“Often it feels a lot like you should be able to manage it all,” she said in a recent email. And that, my friends, sums up the motherhood condition known as “The Shoulds”.

I should be able to work as much as I used to.
I should be able to wear my pre-pregnancy clothes.
I should be able to smile and laugh and play with my baby all day.
I should be able to get up early.
I should be able to keep my house clean.
I should be able to do it all.

Guess what mamas? You can’t. Motherhood is an all-consuming, priority-shifting, time-altering new reality. So, what’s a girl to do? Well, you have to choose what’s going to change. You can choose sleep or fitness or work or socializing or housework or….. see what I mean? There are simply not enough hours in the day to do it all, always. My choice is less sleep (okay, far less sleep), part-time work, and a perpetually dirty kitchen floor; it wouldn’t have worked for the childless me, but it works for the mama in me. And I’m slowly recovering from “The Shoulds”.