Hello Everyone! Welcome to my blog FragileXChick. I hope that my blog is helpful to you all in understanding more about Fragile X and how it has affected my life. I also hope that it helps those who are parents to girls who have the full mutation of FX. Lastly, I hope it helps those females who are affected with FX with whatever problems they be experiencing in life at the moment or can relate to what I talk about in my future blog posts.
In this blog, I'm just going to introduce myself, give you some background about what Fragile X is to those who may not have a clear idea of what it is. Also I'm going to mention how it runs in my family and when I was diagnosed and then when I was told.
My name is Chelsea Owens. I'm currently 21 and will be 22 in September. I live in Cold Spring, Kentucky. I still live at home with my parents Shane and Paula, my sister Kaitlyn who is 19 , and my brother Thomas who just turned 16. I have 2 pets, a cat named Fluffy and he is 17 years old and a dog named Kodak and he is 7 months old.
I'm currently in college at Gateway Community and Technical College. I've been attending there all of my college years so far. I've changed majors so I'm kinda behind on getting my associates degree in Education. I'm planning on getting my associates degree in Education from Gateway and then transferring to NKU(Northern Kentucky University) to finish out my degree. I will talk more about school in my future blogs.
I currently work at a daycare called Aunt Kathy's in Highland Heights, Kentucky. It's my first job. I have been working there for a year and I love working there! I mostly work with the one year olds but sometimes I get switched around to different rooms. Some days are better than others but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love working with the kids and helping them learn. The kids are adorable and love seeing their personalities shine and seeing them smile. They always make my day when I work.
Well now onto, what exactly Fragile X is. Well Fragile X is a genetic condition that causes intellectual disability, behavioral and learning challenges and various physical characteristics. Fragile X occurs in both genders male and female. It also occurs in all races as well. To learn more go to:
Fragile X runs on my mom's side of the family. The Heisel side. The family members that are affected with FX are: My Grandma( carrier), My Aunt Amy(carrier), My Uncle Scott(carrier), My two cousins Maria and Hannah( Carriers). My Mom(Full Mutation), My Uncle Aaron(Full Mutation) and my cousin Larry( Full Mutation). My cousin Larry is my Aunt Amy's son and then Maria and Hannah are my Uncle Scott's two girls.
I was diagnosed at the age of 7 after my Aunt noticed that my cousin Larry was a baby and was behind on development and then had him tested and found out about FXS. Then I got diagnosed with the Full Mutation. I wasn't told that I had FX until I was about 10 years old. I obviously didn't get the full understanding of what FXS was at the time. All I really knew was that my cousin Larry had it and that I wasn't autistic like he was. I just thought it was a learning disability that I had and got extra help when I needed it in school and kinda of moved on with life.
In my next blog, I will talk about when I was in Junior High and my experiences with attending a Catholic Grade School.
Thanks for reading! :-)
Enjoy! I promise that the next one will be much more interesting.
With lots of love,
Chelsea
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