[blparent] Finding ticks on kids nonvisually?

Thu Jul 11 22:00:13 UTC 2013

Michelle,

Probably in part because I agree wit  her, I don't see where she made any blanket statements.  I think it is very important as 
blind parents and blind people that we are careful to explore our own capabilities before we assume that a sighted person is 
automatically more capable than we are to handle a given situation.  While you did not specifically say that this was the case, 
you did seem to be predisposed in your note to having your friends gather information for you even though you are using that 
information to make your own decisions.  I would submit that you don't have to be a nurse or even sighted to find a tick on a 
child.  If one is wondering if they found ticks, I don't see any problem with having a sighted friend verify to help a new parent 
build confidence, but to me, this process just isn't aht mysterious.  We do share idease on this list, but it's also reasonable to 
share the pros and the cons of various approaches,.  

As new parents, we are going to lack experience and we will need some help.  Some of that help we can get by talking to experts 
and with friends as well as people here.  Remember, though, that your friends are not necessarily going to know what you are 
capable of doing, so one has to walk a sort of fine line of using there expertise as a way to learn what you can do rather than as 
a factor that might limit what you believe you can do.  For example, if you had a friend you feel you could count on for help and 
you had a child in a day camp, my suggestion would be to check for ticks yourself, and if you didn't feel confident have your 
friend check as well.  If your friend found a tick that you missed, that doesn't prove that you need to have someone else check 
your child, but rather, that there is more you need to learn about finding ticks.  You could use such a circumstance as a means to 
learn what it was that caused you to miss the tick.  Maybe it was somewhere that you didn't look or it was smaller than you 
expected or something.  To me, there is a big difference between having a friend gather information and using a friend to help you 
learn to gether the information.  I am saying all of this not to be critical of what you said, but because from what you have 
said, you are very early in this process and some of this may not be obvious and this is a way those of us who have been through 
this can be of some kind of help.  One has to always consider that one will have to make decisions in the absence of even good 
friends because they can't always be there, so one has to develop one's abilities as much as possible, but fortunately, our 
limitations tend to be smaller than we think when we're starting out.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Thu, 11 Jul 2013 12:09:53 -0700, Michelle Creedy  wrote:

>Great suggestions. I encourage you to be careful about making blanket
>statements and assumptions about people you don't know and likely will never
>meet. Your ideas are good ones but be careful.

>Of course I'd know bumps that were not there before and guess who found the
>ticks on the horses first? We had quite a lot of them in Africa. We all have
>techniques that we use and maybe some of them are not what others would use
>but the beauty of this list is that we share the techniques and if they werk
>they work. If someone doesn't like them don't use them. It's all a matter of
>making choices that you can live with. I'm simply throwing out ideas.

>Michelle

>-----Original Message-----
>From: blparent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Star Gazer
>Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2013 11:53 AM
>To: 'Blind Parents Mailing List'
>Subject: Re: [blparent] Finding ticks on kids nonvisually?

>You will be in much closer contact with any kids you have then you will with
>your horses. 
>It's fine to use your friends, my concern with your post is that you are
>already hading over your power. Ticks feel like bumps that shouldn't be
>there. You as the mom will know things about your kids that professional
>people in any capacity simply can't know. Don't let other people define the
>relationship you have with your children.  

>-----Original Message-----
>From: blparent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Michelle
>Creedy
>Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2013 9:17 PM
>To: 'Blind Parents Mailing List'
>Subject: Re: [blparent] Finding ticks on kids nonvisually?

>I too was going to suggest a sighted person to check. I have a couple of
>friends who are nurses and plan on using their expertees when I have
>children. I guess for me, it's about having that conversation with the
>person so that they understand that you simply need them to give you
>information with their eyes that you are having trouble perceiving. I always
>let them know that in the end, I will make the decisions on what to do with
>that information.

>I have two miniature horses and the one's eye runs a lot. I often rely on
>the vision shared by others to let me know when it is really infected. I
>decide on the course of treatments but they give me that info.

>Michelle

>-----Original Message-----
>From: blparent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Gabe Vega
>Via Iphone4S
>Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2013 5:52 PM
>To: Blind Parents Mailing List
>Cc: Blind Parents Mailing List
>Subject: Re: [blparent] Finding ticks on kids nonvisually?

>I'm glad you are registered in finding this out. I am very happy to see that
>you are not militant and insistent on having yourselves only do it and
>possibly letting a set of person do it. I wish we had more like you. I wish
>I knew the answer or what to tell you, but I don't. I never had to do this
>before. But thank you for the breath of fresh air, in the understanding that
>sometimes, just sometimes we might need aside a person or two in our lives
>to help us just

>Gabe Vega
>Sent from my iPhone
>CEO
>Commtech LLC
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>On Jul 9, 2013, at 12:34 PM, "Melissa Ann Riccobono" <melissa at riccobono.us>
>wrote:

>> Hello everyone,
>> 
>> Our son, Austin, is at a nature day camp this week. He is having tons 
>> of fun, but this morning he told me that his counselors told him to 
>> have his parents check him for ticks each night when he comes home.
>> This makes sense to me, but I admit this is something I have never 
>> done before. Is there a way to check nonvisually for a tick on your child?
>> 
>> Thanks for any thoughts.
>> 
>> Melissa
>> 
>> P.S. We certainly have sighted friends/neighbors who can help with 
>> this, but I was curious if this is something Mark and I could do
>ourselves.
>> 
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