My name is Blair Messina, I founded Wildflower Wellness in 2022. I am a teacher and mother. It is my greatest pleasure and privilege working with children to inspire creativity and encourage critical thinking. The same passion was evident when I became a mother. The same excitement of being able to guide the person they were going to be and watch them grow just like I had with my students each day.
In 2020 my second child, Luca, was born and I began noticing right away some developmental concerns. The biggest being he wasn’t tracking me with his eyes. My training as an early education teacher and my maternal instinct both told me something was not right. But the doctors and nurses challenged my assertions claiming “every child develops at their own pace”.
I would find out later that this “wait and see” approach was too common. Finally, after multiple calls and our own visit to an ophthalmologist the doctor referred Luca to pediatric ophthalmology for a second opinion.
And so began our battle.
We fought the pediatricians who preferred to take the “wait and see” approach. We fought for referrals. We fought to be moved up the 8 MONTH WAITING LIST. We fought the insurance company. It took 15 months to get the diagnosis of LCA, this meant Luca was blind. In addition to being the most exhausting and miserable experience for our family this also meant Luca had been waiting 15 months to attain the basic therapies he needed to allow him to learn how to live in our world without sight.
It shouldn’t have to be a fight.
Through this process, we connected with other parents, therapists and service providers. Sadly, our battle story is not unique. In fact, because of (or even despite) my experience and training, I believe our battle was much shorter than it would have been for another family. And that is not ok. Many families don’t have the time, resources, or education to fight for their child like they want to, like they need to. That is when I decided something had to change. How could I – a teacher, a mother – change this for families in the future.
We are joining the fight.
In partnership with therapists and community advocates I have met throughout our fight, Wildflower Wellness was created. Our goal is to provide accessible and affordable services along with advocacy for families and children with specialized needs. Through partnerships with local organizations and individual specialists we hope to allow families the access to not only basic services such as speech, play or physical therapy but also activities that will help support the goal of an inclusive future. Activities such as gymnastics, soccer, art and music classes are just a few of the resources that will be offered to families in our community. No child or family should have to be excluded or feel alone because they were born different.
