Last year was hard. A year ago around this time, we were struggling with Daniel and his enemas. They weren’t working and he would have big accidents in the middle of the night.

Daniel was born with VACTERL, a medical condition that affects multiple body parts. Daniel doesn’t have feeling in his bottom area and he gets constipated, which is why we do enemas for him.

My husband was going to school at night and I had no respite help, so I was exhausted. After fighting with his doctors about trying new things, I finally got someone to listen to me. We were already planning on doing a surgery that would allow us to do his enemas going down from his belly button, instead of going up from the bottom. But it was a few months away and we needed a solution quickly.

We found a solution to the recipe we were using for his enemas that would help the process go faster and it worked. Daniel had the surgery almost a year ago last April and we haven’t had any problems since!

Advocacy is so important when we have kids with disabilities. I knew something was wrong, but kept getting dismissed. These are some of the best colorectal doctors in the world and we are fortunate enough to live in a state that actually had doctors that knew how to manage Daniel’s condition. They travel all over the world teaching other doctors how to do what they do. So for me to question them felt wrong to me. I didn’t switch practices, but I did seek a second opinion from a different doctor at the same place. He listened and helped me figure things out.

Daniel has been doing so well since his surgery in April. It’s been a great solution for our family and Daniel’s quality of life.

Now, we just needed to get him trained with going on the potty for urine. We didn’t really know if he had feeling in that area or not, he didn’t really show signs of trying to hold it at all. We tried getting him on a schedule during summer, but once school started again, we stopped.

His teachers at school started helping him by giving him reminders and he basically potty trained himself. I found out at his IEP meeting in January that he was getting up and going when he needed to at school. I had no idea he was doing that because he doesn’t do that at home, and he didn’t tell us. So, over spring break, we put him in underwear and have been giving him reminders every few hours to go.

I was terrified to put him in underwear at school, I was worried about accidents and his dignity with his peers. But it seemed like he understood when he needed to go and was doing so good with it. So this week we put him underwear, and he hasn’t had any accidents at school or home!

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. Daniel was born with multiple abnormalities and disabilities, and he has not let any thing or any one tell him he can’t do something. He’s a fighter and I’m so proud of where he is right now and how far he’s come.

We have amazing doctors, wonderful teachers, and an incredible support system that has helped us with Daniel, and all our kids for that matter. We have to keep fighting and always advocate for our kids and loved ones with disabilities.