More from Mary
HI
This is a kind of "To whom
it may concern" type answer to your letter to me, though it
didn't
start out that way, but because I have had so many responses to
my letter in the
September KS newsletter, I just haven't been able to write
individually to everyone.
Several people who wrote said that they were frightened, as I
was, by the literature
available about Klinefelter's--it new seems evident to me from
what I have recently read
that the Oregon studies were done on people diagnosed after they
were already
prisoners--how this correlates to all children with Klinefelter's
having criminal
tendencies, I think myself, is criminal!! The more people I talk
to and the more I read,
and from the letters I have received, many many many people with
Klinefelter's
have few or unnoticeable symptoms, and many that are attributed
to the syndrome may
stem from something else.
My own experience, now that my
son is almost 6 and a half, is that he is sensitive to loud
noises, doesn't tire more easily than the other children but once
he is overly tired is
totally crabby and whiny, and though he bit his fingernails, is
trying to stop because he
wants to. I just went to parent-teacher conference with his first
grade teacher this last
week and though he has needed a little extra help in reading
because he didn't know all
the sounds the alphabet letters make, he is now reading with
enjoyment and his math
skills are great! Since we purchased a Nintendo last Christmas,
his attention and
concentration took a major leap, and he will cooperate readily to
earn Nintendo time.
(presently the kids are limited to half an hour a day, but can
earn special time).
I have five children, two older
ones 30 and 26, and the 3 who live with me now, two girls ages
10 & 9 and my son, who is now almost 6 and a half. Though it
is hard not to
compare him to my other children, he truly is not much like the
others. For one thing, he
is my only brown-eyed child and since my eyes are brown, I like
to joke that it took me 5
times to get it right! Truly, though, he is the sanity-saver in
my bunch--I am recently
divorced and his mellowness and willingness to cuddle and talk
have soothed me many
times. But he is getting much more independent now, and hasn't
time to spend talking to
me-- he is involved in soccer and bike-riding and doing things
with his friends. He
seems to have exceptional eye-hand coordination and can rifle a
football pass to the
amazement of his big brother. He is a joy, and his one fault is a
tendency to be whiny
when tired and he could use a little improvement on not throwing
his dirty socks
under the bed. We have cats, and he is living and kind with them,
loves one of his
sisters dearly and can't stand the other one. some of my other
children have problems which
seem to me much more urgent and which cause decidedly more
trouble than my sons.
He seems and he tests "normal" and "average"
in every way but this one.
Everyone who knows him,
including his older brother and sister, teachers, friends,
neighbors
and sitters, remark on his sweetness and on how appealing he is.
I wish for his sake
that he will not have to have hormone therapy or surgery, and my
one regret is that me
may be sterile. But from some of the letters I have received,
surgery and therapy
may not be necessary or may be a choice to be made. We will deal
with problems when,
and if we have to. Again, I can't say that knowing about this was
something I
would choose again, but it may not be the ogre that I thought it
was, but simply an
awareness, which may be helpful in dealing with problems in the
future. Thank you to
everyone who wrote--I will be writing to the newsletter again to
say all these things--good
luck to all of you.
Mary
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