When Everything Happens for a Reason...

A lot has transpired since I last wrote.... Good, Bad, Ugly and GREAT!
The past few years have been especially hard for me, trying to balance a full time job with family life.  My career had been less than satisfactory and was heading nowhere, leaving me uninspired and bored.  I have looked here and there for a new job but there hasn't been much out there in my field.  I didn't want to rock the boat too much, I had been there for 10 years, I had a steady paycheck, I was comfortable.
Not long ago a job opportunity was presented to me.  It wasn't something I would normally go for, and didn't really think much of it at first.  I did a couple phone interviews just to keep my options open, and eventually landed an interview, and quickly became excited at this new opportunity.  My interview was scheduled for a Friday afternoon.
That Friday came and I went to work as usual.  I've been experiencing a bit of anxiety at work, feeling as if my days were numbered.  That morning I got laid off.  I wasn't particularly shocked, and almost felt relieved.  I had a couple hours to clean out my cube, pull my shit together and get to my interview.
I didn't have time to even process what had just happened, and went in pretending like it was tomorrow's news.
I ended up having the interview of my life and met with some awesome new people with a great company!  As I was leaving they told me they wanted to present an offer to me by that Monday.  I couldn't have asked God for more at that moment!  Who gets laid off and hired all in the same day???
Long story short, I accepted the position!  I took a few weeks off to spend with the kids before starting... we went to spring training games, played outside, went to the movies and I snuggled them a lot!  It was so refreshing and relaxing!
I miss their little faces but I've started my new job this week.  It has been a really good change for me and I have a lot to learn, but I'm confident it will all come with time.  It's a completely different industry than what I'm used to, but uses very similar technology than what I am familiar with.
I'm really excited because I have been enrolling us on our new health insurance and it's going to cover WAY more than my previous plan.  I've switched the entire family to the new plan and we will now be able to take little girl to all her appointments without paying an arm and a leg!  This has been a HUGE relief for me, I finally feel like I can take care of my family.  Her therapist and her ND will now be covered.  Even though we have backed away from the consuming Dr's appointments, I'd really like to get her diet on the right track and eliminate the guesswork.
I know with all this new coverage I will have a lot more to report, I promise I will share what I learn!

A Few Facts About Trich

The biggest reason I started this blog was to spread awareness and educate people about trich.
Everyone is going to have their own opinion on how to handle it, and every case is different.
If you are a parent of someone with trich, I am sure you are like me, reading every book and article about it, trying to figure out what will work for you and your child.  Here is what I have learned so far.

• What works for one person may not work for another.
• There can be many "types" of trich with multiple levels of severity.
• There is no "cure" for trich, and unfortunatley, there is no magic pill that will make it disappear.
• Although antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds have helped some, most experiences that I have read from the parents group that have joined online say that it has worsened their child's trich and they ended up taking them off.
• This leads me to my next point.  I will NOT medicate my daughter for trich.  She is only 5.  She has been seeing a therapist who has experience with trich, and she tells us that she does not need medication.  (Which I fully agree)  She reports that she is a very happy, confident and outgoing girl, who apparently loves anything shiny and sparkly!   
• GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome)  If you haven't read about it yet, I highly recommend you educate yourself on how your digestive system affects your brain.  Although I would love to try this diet out with my daughter, she is WAY too young to understand why she can't eat normal food for 6 months and beyond! 
• That being said, my next point is diet.  I'm sure you have read about how bad processed foods, GMOs, high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils, ect. are for you.  Yes we have heard about how our bodies cannot process these things, but did you know this not only affects our weight but our brains as well?
• Food allergy.   Allergies to food can affect the body not only physically but mentally.  We found out little girl has a dairy allergy.  Although it has never really made her physically ill, it could have affected her gut enough to eventually cause an imbalance within her brain.
• There are certain "triggers" for trich.  The most popular misconception is that the person suffering from trich has high anxiety.  THIS IS NOT TRUE!  My daughter does not have anxiety.  We actually pinpointed some of her triggers and her favorite time to pull is when something exciting is going on.  Her birthday, holidays, even going to a friend's house creates such an excitement in her that she can't settle down, so she pulls to relax. 
• You don't "grow out of" trich.  She will most likely deal with this for the rest of her life.  The only thing we can do as parents is give her the tools to manage it the best she can.  The most encouraging thing I ever heard was from a friend who told me how she pulled out her brows when she was little but never did it again after that.  But she admitted she still has the urge to pull to this day.  I believe after all the personal experiences I've read from, that the "urge" never really goes away, but you find ways to overcome it. 
• Exercise!  Exercise!  Exercise!  I have found a few children's yoga movies on our Amazon Prime that my daughter likes.  It's called "Kinda-Yoga" and she absolutely loves doing it before bedtime.  As I mentioned previously, she gets really excited and doesn't know what to do with all that energy.  I find if she's outside riding her bike, running up and down the street with her friends or does her yoga, she is more tired and able to sleep at the end of the night.

There is so much more out there and I am continually interested in learning more about trich.  I hope in the near future to become a little more involved in the actual community of girls that this disorder affects. More to come on that!