{"id":11814,"date":"2014-02-03T07:18:38","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T15:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mr66givry2.onrocket.site\/?post_type=family-stories&p=11814"},"modified":"2025-12-30T07:19:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T15:19:50","slug":"loraine-dressler-accentuating-positive","status":"publish","type":"family-stories","link":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/fr\/family-stories\/loraine-dressler-accentuating-positive\/","title":{"rendered":"Loraine Dressler: Accentuating the Positive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Loraine Dressler\u2019s daughter Kristl was just a few weeks from giving birth, she was diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy. According to Loraine, the diagnosis provided a sense of freedom that had eluded Kristl for years. \u201cShe said that while people may have thought she was crazy before, now she knows she\u2019s not,\u201d Loraine recalls.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Growing up, Kristl had experienced many challenges, including a lack of problem-solving skills.\u00a0\u201cKristl\u2019s symptoms didn\u2019t connect in a way that made sense to any of her doctors,\u201d Loraine says. \u201cShe would come home from school and tell me about other kids but couldn\u2019t tell me about her schoolwork. She also didn\u2019t like me to read to her as a young child and told me that the words confused her. She couldn\u2019t make connections between words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Kristl says she no longer feels alone. After being diagnosed, she told Loraine, \u201cI\u2019m OK. All these people are OK, and we\u2019re fine.\u201d That was a moment of joy for Loraine, who knows how she feels.\u00a0Loraine herself wasn\u2019t diagnosed until Kristl\u2019s pregnancy. However, her late brother lived with DM and experienced serious symptoms. For years Loraine been attending a support group with her brother and knew the group members well. So when she was diagnosed, she already possessed much of the knowledge and coping skills she needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never fell through the black hole many people experience when they first receive the diagnosis because I already had a support group. The people in that group were like family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loraine says her brother was a great example. He did whatever he could, including making adjustments to his Jeep so he could accommodate his feeding tube.\u00a0\u201cOnce diagnosed, people tend to become good at solving problems and keeping going,\u201d Loraine adds. \u201cI\u2019m grateful for what we have and don\u2019t cry about what we don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In fact, not only does she not focus on the negative, but after attending the 2013 Myotonic\u00a0Annual Conference in Houston, she decided to start her own support group in Orange County, California.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019d been driving over an hour to get to the support group we were attending, but I felt there could be a need closer to home,\u201d Loraine says.\u00a0\u201cI wanted to step back from just taking care of Kristl and her son, Zen, and give something to the community. I see it as a way to make my world bigger. I\u2019m looking forward to getting people involved and giving back some of what\u2019s been given to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, she spends her days as the primary caregiver for her grandson Zen, who is now 19 months old and was born with congenital DM. She fondly remembers celebrating his first birthday, determined to be grateful for every day they are together.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is more now,\u201d Loraine says. \u201cI appreciate the simpleness of breathing and days when Zen is not overwhelmed by coughing. I have a new appreciation for the quietness of the body. Being a caretaker has brought that to me. Zen loves me, and if I\u2019m as big as his world ever gets, I\u2019m going to make sure his world is a good one. It\u2019s already a good one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11815,"template":"","class_list":["post-11814","family-stories","type-family-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/family-stories\/11814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/family-stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/family-stories"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}