RIP Morley Safer

RIP Samuel Gibson

A Mother’s Day Testimonial from a Mom

Recently I invited my mom to contribute to a blog series on Mother’s Day. My mom and I are close, yet I wanted to have more information on what her experience on being a mother has been like. I am her only child. Here, in her own words, is the testimony by my mom, Sherry Barrie.

I have always wanted to be a mother. As a young girl and teenager, I was the one who always wanted to take care of other people’s babies and toddlers. So, I was very happy and excited to learn that I was pregnant in the fall of 1972!

After initially having “false labour,” then the ‘real thing’, Donald was born on June 23, 1973, a breech birth. The doctor immediately knew that something was very wrong and Donald was quickly transferred to the Hospital for Sick Children. Later in the day I was informed that he had a rare condition, (that I had never heard of) called osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Commonly called ‘brittle bone disease,’ the bones do not develop properly and are weak and brittle and fracture easily.

Donald was born with broken arms and legs and skull fractures, some suffered in utero and the others during delivery. During his lifetime, he has sustained many fractures and had several surgeries. There is no cure for this condition but today there are more treatments and medications available than there were 40 years ago.

I was shocked and devastated when the doctor told me that Donald would not survive. Wrong again. Although I had met a few families raising children with disabilities, I was not involved in their lives and was too young to appreciate what they must have been going through. To me, motherhood means that there is someone I have to watch out for and put before myself and worry about 24/7!

This will be my 42nd Mother’s Day. I usually am treated to a meal out, a gift and usually a funny card! I enjoy being pampered! I believe my first Mother’s Day has to be my favourite.

I have no regrets about being a mother, despite the many challenges. Some things I would change, if I could, but I cannot.

What gives me the most joy and satisfaction about being a mother? I love to hear Donald laugh! He has a great sense of humour!

I am very proud of Donald and all his accomplishments and love him dearly, although he sometimes drives me crazy, and vice-versa, I’m sure!

Donald and his mom says, “CHEERS” to mothers everywhere!

May 6 is Wishbone Day!

Top 10 Myths About Osteogenesis Imperfecta

Top 10 Myths About OI - 2016 (taken from an OI parent)

10) They don't have blue sclerae so it's not OI. (White, gray, gray-blue, or blue)

9) Kids with OI will "grow out of it". (Genetics)

8) OI is contagious. (Genetics, not infectious)

7) You think you can control a child's innate/biological instinct to move, crawl, stand, climb, explore. (You can't. Safe environment)

6) Every person with OI is affected the same way and presents the same way clinically, so should be treated the same way (spectrum condition, unique genetic information for each individual, individualized context based clinical care plans)

5) Toddlers are too young to have rodding surgeries (Fassier-Duval Rods - pulling to stand, weight bearing child)

4) Infants are too young to be started on medical therapies like IV Pamidronate. (Montreal Shriners - Glorieux, Plotkin, Rauch studies of late 90s/early 2000s)

3) The increased ambulation, activity levels, reduced pain levels, improved quality of life in children over the last 20 years are due to "nutrition". (See 4 & 5)

2) Infants, toddlers, children, adolescents, adults do not feel pain with fractures the older they get and more they have them. (Pain is real and affects recovery and long term outcomes)

1) Drinking more milk will cure OI. (Really?!)