Additional Needs

“Doctor, Please Just Let Us Try” - Raising a Child with a Disability

Posted by Melissa Schlemmer on 24th November 2015 Additional Needs, Advice & Support, Disabilities

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Let us try.

Allow us as parents to try everything and anything to help our child.

Don’t shut us down when we say we are going to try acupuncture or massage or even hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Yes, please let us know the risks but if there is no danger to our child then please support our decision.

Don’t give us every publication stating that there is no research to support our choice.

You see, sometimes the only thing we have is hope.

We don’t need to hear more, “can’ts”, or, “won’ts.”

There are days when the only thing we can hang onto day after day is faith.

We don’t want to get to the end of our journey and have any regrets.

I don’t want to ever question myself and say what if we did that or I wish we had tried that!

I want to know in my heart that we gave our son every fighting chance to succeed.

Our son is global developmentally delayed and at two years old he’s still not sitting, scooting, or crawling.

I’m trying it all.

We’ve flown across the country and spent thousands of dollars for intensive therapy.

He didn’t walk out of there and he didn’t even sit, but he did make progress.

Any progress is a step in the right direction in our eyes.

I walked in there expecting nothing and walked out with a newfound excitement and energy about the possibilities for our son.

You know why? They believed in him. They gave me hope.

So, please let us try.

Let us try and possibly fail.

We know not everything is going to work for our children.

We know that there may be treatments or therapies that have low probability of success, but let us be the ones to find out.

Please stop looking at his chart and telling me all the things he most likely will not do.

Put the chart down and look at him.

Look at his sweet face and determined spirit and tell me to try.

Tell me you would do the same if you were in my shoes.

Tell me that there are other treatments that may not be supported by scientific evidence by we have every right to give them a try.

Give us hope.

Not unrealistic expectations, I’m not asking you to lie.

I’m only asking you to allow us to try, fail, and hopefully succeed.