Smiles and Duct Tape

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Pub Date 24 Oct 2016 | Archive Date 13 Feb 2017

Description

No one would have ever imagined the Torreys leaving the house armed with a supply of emergency medication and a list of top neurologists or ever needing to change their teenage son's diaper at 36,000 feet. That's the thing about life -- there is so much you can't imagine until it happens. You just need to figure out how you're going to get through it and, more importantly, what's going to hold you together.

Smiles and Duct Tape follows the Torreys on their harrowing journey through Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), the rare and cruel disease that forever changed their son's life. It's far from the journey they embarked on when they started their family, but they have managed not only to survive, but also enjoy the ride. A powerful and transformative story of a family’s courage and willingness to carry on and live their new normal with grace, humor, and incredible strength.

No one would have ever imagined the Torreys leaving the house armed with a supply of emergency medication and a list of top neurologists or ever needing to change their teenage son's diaper at 36,000...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781944193690
PRICE $17.95 (USD)

Average rating from 7 members


Featured Reviews

As the stepmother of a "multiply special" child, Jesse Torrey's memoir Smiles and Duct Tape hits home and it hits hard. Raising a child with so much to overcome often feels like lonely road, one that requires a quirky sense of humor to get to the finish line. Reading Torrey's experience is both difficult and enlightening and in spite of the painful material, I finished the book in less than a day. Her passion for her son is phenomenal and this is by far one of the best medical memoirs I've read.

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Jesse Torrey's story is an honest, heart warming and sometimes heart breaking account of having a child with ALD (Adrenoleukodystrophy) the disease introduced widely in Lorenzo's Oil, the 1992 movie staring Nick Nolte & Susan Sarandon. In Smiles and Duct Tape, Jack Torrey, Jesse and Dan Torrey's 8 year old son begins showing signs which they learn are symptoms of ALD advancing in Jack's body and their family life as they know it. As families with special needs children know, a disease such as ALD changes everything about the family dynamic. Jesse Torrey's account demonstrates that humor helps as well as strong optimism with a dose of reality in maintaining a thriving, happily grateful family unit embracing their new normal Smiles and Duct Tape is an educational and inspirational book which I recommend highly to learn more about the disease or me, incredibly fulfilling spiritual food.

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