Holl And Lane Issue 3 | Page 85

leg. As a parent, I was allowed to stay in the room with my
child, but the parents of the other two boys in the room were
furious because there would be a teenaged girl sleeping in
the room with their sons overnight for the better part of a
week. What was I supposed to do? Leave my six month
old child alone in the hospital because they were worried
about my obviously promiscuous self trying to make a love
connection at the hospital. This is just another hurdle I had
to overcome in order to be taken seriously as a parent and
not just a child with a kid of her own.
After three months of steroid shots, Steve’s seizures
stopped. He was seizure free for four years and then developed partial-complex seizures for which more trips to
University of Michigan hospital were necessary. He was
given Topamax© and later Depakote© to help
with these seizures. After five years, at the age
of ten, we stopped all medications and he has
been seizure free for almost nine years. He did
develop learning disabilities and was placed in
a classroom for emotionally impaired students.
Being young and sitting in an IEP meeting (Individualized Education Plan) with educators,
social workers, counselors, and principals staring at you explaining what is wrong with your
child, what they need from you as a parent, and
how to proceed to make the best of their school
years is intimidating when you are a 21 year old
mother. You still feel like you are in the principal’s office being scolded for something you did
wrong. While the doctors have assured me this
form of epilepsy was a genetic thing and could
not have been prevented, I always wonder if it
is my fault for not getting the proper prenatal
care and hiding my pregnancy from everyone
for so long.

made me want to become a liaison between the parents
and the technical jargon the teachers use. I decided to go
back to school to become a special education teacher in
the field of Emotional Impairment. I think it is important to
the parents to know they are not alone and the person in
the classroom with their child is sympathetic to their needs
and willing to answer their questions and work with them to
make sure their child is getting the most from their educational experience. More importantly, it is a testimony to other
teen moms that they can do it. They can have a child before
they are ready and it is not a death sentence, but it is hard.
The rewards come, but you do not always recognize them
until you look back and see all the successes despite the
hardships. Steven and I grew up together and I could not be
more proud of how far we have come. ✴

This spring, Steven graduated from Jackson High School. I could not have been more
proud to be there watching my son, who had
overcome so many struggles throughout his
school years, receive his diploma, hug the principal and superintendent and be seated with his
graduating class of 2015. Being his mom also
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