new things

   Today we are going to meet a new doctor. Seems like us people with 22q is always meeting new doctors. We are going for help with my mood swings, anxiety , and also depression that a lot of my fb friends does not KNOW i battle with constantly. Even though I have lasted this long without any kind of meds for my depression I can tell that it is taken a major health toll on me and before it gets any worse and before I get any worse, I feel that it is time to get the right kind of treatment and quit trying to ignore it.

    Depression can take a toll on marriage, life, just about every aspect of a person. Anxiety is something I have never had until my husband and I started to fight for rights to his step son. Anxiety can break you, trap you, make you have the worst feelings in the world that no one could image that has never had anxiety so bad that it takes medication to treat.

  With my 22q I am always up , down, and all over the place. Without the support of my family, I probably would not have made it this far in life. There comes a point to where you have to stop and realize that you have something that YOU NEED help with and NEED to accept. That is still an on going battle with me. ADMITTING is the FIRST STEP.

   I know that it will take awhile to find the right kind of meds. But, going in the right direction and stepping up and getting help will only make me better. 22q11 has a ton of different symptoms. I am lucky to only have the heart, learning disabilities, mood swings, depression, and the anxiety part. I also have a few of the facial features as well.

  I feel parents should be thankful today that they are able to get a diagnoses so early. I have gone 25 years without knowing. NOT knowing why I struggled so much, we knew part of it was because of my tetralogy of fallout, but had NO IDEA I was missing a chromosome.

  I am also working on new jewelry. That is one reason why I labeled my blog new things. We are also discussing adoption again. My doctors just decided that my body would not with hold a pregnancy, but keep in mind that a lot of TOF cases are different some were able to have children some aren't.

   I am still waiting to hear if I get into culinary school. I am also looking at doing a few photography classes offered at the local community center. I recently took pics of a friend that just got back from Afghanistan and cannot believe how great they turned out.

  22qers have a lot of hidden talents. I think that it is important that we let them out and let them shine.
I encourage all 22q/ heart moms to support and most of all encourage their children.

  Hope and faith goes a long way in 22q11 journeys, believing is a great way to helping us succeed, LOVE is all we need in this journey through our ups and downs. Courage is something a lot of us have and it shows with every battle we face with this.
 
  22q11 isn't always negative. There are A LOT of good things that can come out of someones live with 22q11. So I am leaving you today with the challange of : ENCOURAGEMENT and BELIEVING that just because we have a disability it doesn't have us.
 
 

So I decided to do a new blog. For those that do not know me etc. I am 32 years old , born with the CHD Tetralogy of Fallot, I have had about 6 open heart surgeries. I went 25 years without knowing that I had 22q11. I am originally from Stone Mountain Georgia, currently living in Gulfport Mississippi with my husband who is a US. Navy Seabee. We own our very first own home and he has been serving here for almost 13 years now. I have an older brother and both parents tested negative for 22q. I have a degree in Hotel Management and am looking forward to trying to go to school in January for Culinary Arts Technology . I have an eye for designing my own jewelry and also like to spend a lot of time in my own craft studio. I am working on designing exclusive stuff for the Dempster Family Foundation. I have had many struggles with my 22q11 journey and hope to write a lot more about them here. Thank you all for following ,reading, and if you have purchased some of my awareness jewelry thank you from the bottom of my heart.

living and loving someone with 22q11 deletion

My blog thought for the day : What's it like having and loving someone with 22q.

It's dr appointment after appointment, it's trying to explain an unknown medical disorder to those that should know what it is.
It's proving drs wrong over and over that we with 22q can do something they told us we probably never would be able to do. 
It's over coming struggles. Sometimes battling depression and full

 blown mood swings without knowing why a melt down or two for no reason.
It's showing people that even though we are missing a genetic we are still willing and able to show the world what we are made of.
Some of us are heart warriors and fight many surgery battles and win.
Some of us fight a lot harder battles with vcfs/22q/digeorge syndrome
We often ask why but only one person can tell us why we are giving things like this to deal with.
Many different symptoms , goes with many different faces.
We are still loved by friends and family who are our biggest supporters no matter how bad of days we 22qers/vcfsers /digeorge syndromers have.
We teach the very most important lesson to others that life shouldn't be taken for granted and we should all love , hope and pray for a cure , but regardless we are still warriors and fighters and have more courage than one can endure.
We will still fight with our missing piece and educate the world on 22q!