The Moon and Saint Christopher: Starting Again

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Starting Again

I've let this blog go for quite a while, but I think it's time to revive it. This week I discovered a Facebook page for Turners Syndromw girls and women - Help Get Turner Syndrome Recognized - and I'm feeling inspired to try again to connect with the Turner Syndrome community. Looking back, I wish that as I was growing up, I'd known other girls and women with Turners. Women and girls who could assure me that I was not alone, that the future could be bright, that my "differences" did not define me. I wasn't definitively diagnosed as a Turner mosaic until my mid-twenties, so there was a fairly long period of my life where I craved answers. Though I couldn't have said so at the time, that craving for answers led me to study science, and my feeling of isolation led me to express my artistic side in words and music. At this point in my life, I'd really like to pass on the message that Turner girls and women are strong, beautiful and talented. I hope you'll feel free to use this blog as a medium for self-expression in any way you choose.

2 comments:

AudreyHollandApril 18, 2013 at 12:11 PM
Good for you - you are a brave lady. I have never heard of Turner Syndrome before, although now, I realize that one of my best friends in High School must have had it. She fit all your physical descriptions and even then had heart problems. Unfortunately, she moved back to Scotland and I lost track of her.
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Jennie MarslandApril 18, 2013 at 4:45 PM
Hi Audrey! Thanks for dropping by.

The thing with Turner's is, there's a wide spectrum of syptoms. Some girls and women have severe symptoms, and others appear "normal". Your friend may have been a Turner mosaic, like me, with few visible differences except short stature.
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About Me

My name is Linda Atkinson. I'm a teacher, an amateur musician and painter, the author of four published historical novels under my pen name Jennie Marsland, and a 45,x Turner Syndrome mosaic. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada with my husband, who puts the music in my life, and our two Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers, Chance and Echo, who are without a doubt the most spoiled beings on the planet. When I'm not catering to the four-footed tyrants of the house, I garden, read, play guitar, write and enjoy nature.

My educational background is in science, particularly genetics, but I fell in love with words at an early age and the affair has been lifelong. I'm currently working on my fifth novel. As a day job, I teach math, science and writing at Sylvan Learning Centre.

About Turner Syndrome

Turner Syndrome is a condition that occurs in approximately 1 in 2000 live female births, where all or part of one of the x chromosomes (female sex chromosomes) is missing in some or all of the person's cells. This anomaly causes an array of symptoms including undeveloped or underdeveloped ovaries and uterus, short stature, webbed neck, heart defects, early cataracts, hearing loss, difficulty with visual/spatial learning, working memory deficit, and difficulties with social skills. The good news is, most Turner women lead rich, full lives, make excellent adoptive parents, and have average or above average intelligence and verbal skills. Knowledge is power.