Bit of a strange title ,I know - but not sure what else to call it.
I have been wanting to do this for a while - but never really had the motivation ( see last post )
A little bit about the journey that I have made through life - to get to where I am today.
So I live in South Africa,in a little town called Queensborough,in the city of Durban,on the east coast - a very cosy place to live - the so called 'sleepy town' nothing ever happens here,and everyone minds their own business - just the way that I live it.
But I was born somewhere else - far away from here - the northern hemisphere,in a little town called Anglesea,off the coast of Wales,in the United Kingdom.
Both my parents are from Northern Ireland - so considering that is part of the UK,they are british,not irish -funny how people dont know the difference?Anyway - my father is protestant and my mother is catholic - so ireland was not a good place to get married in 1970.So they eloped ...............( how romantic) by that I mean,they hopped on a ferry across the North Sea and got as far as Wales.....times were hard I guess.
So I was born in Bangor Hospital - only one problem - i had a hole in the base of my spine.Something called Spina Bifida.Comes in 4 different stages ! being the 'best' and 4 being the 'worst' Mine was stage 3.A vertebra comes in 2 halves - the back half and the front half - At the base of my spine just above my coxix,I have the back half and no front half and no disks in between.So my spine is doing somewhat of a balancing act on what is left.
But I digress....
So i was just stitched up and had a VP shunt put in my head to alleviate the pressuse of cerebral spinal fluid in my head - I have not baby pictures - well,nothing before th age of 2 - as it was up until that age that I had been in and out of hospital......having to have the shunt in my head replaced,as it had stopped working and my head had swelled.Causing pressure on the optic nerve in my left eye and leaving me with optic atrophy in my left eye....something I had to deal with later in life......
but I digress again.....
eventually i was deemed ' fit ' enough to travel and my mom,my dad and me went back to Northern Ireland
and then my brother was born.....
cuppajava posted on Oct 12, 2008
| views: 85
Comments
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Lucytorial said on Oct 12, 2008....
Ooohhhh you have a brother too! is he as cute as you are?????You're a world baby then, been everywhere? I like that. -
secretlife said on Oct 12, 2008....
i had a sick baby too cuppa- my first one.she had a hole in her heart at birth and had to have open heart surgery at 6 months.when you tell this story, i cannot think of anything but how hard it must have been for your parents to be in a strange country with a sick child.....and then to be brave enough to have a 2nd one. -
RollingC said on Oct 13, 2008....
I can't imagine what it was like for you but I was sick when I was young and my parents were told that I had a 95% mortality rate.To make a long story short....I guess I was suffering from a acute vitamin deficiency for that was what they gave me...massive (big injection but don't remember them) of vitamin A ( I think ) and here I am still.But I can't imagine what my parents went through emotionally with me like Secret was saying.Rc -
cuppajava said on Oct 13, 2008....
Hi Lucy - yes I have a brother- and I am not gonna tell you what he looks like.He is a couple of years younger than me and a couple of inches taller than me-he looks like my Dad,if that helps (? - devious grin !!! he he he )
Yes,I am a bit of a well travelled boy -but my feet are firmly flat on the ground right now
Hi Secret -i am sorry to hear about your first child - I actually had no idea.I will continue the rest of the story a little later in a post - but the funny thing is that NO ONE in my entire family -either my mother's or my fathers had this kind of thing.So it was quite a mystery to everyone.I was a pretty stubborn baby though,and I didnt give up too easily.One of the reasons why the shunt in my head stopped working the first time,was that I apparently had a habit of sitting in my cot and banging my head off the side of it.
I guess the shunt was giving me a bit of a headache and i was trying to get rid of it!!!!
I can only imagine what you went through
Hi RollingC -Thank you for stopping by once again - Isnt it strange that they cant at least pick this kind of things up in children before they are born??? I mean,there are all sorts of tests that they perform these days to check for the type of thing that I have -lack of folic acid they say? Whether they were right in my case,I guess I will never know.
Herry0628 -Please do me and every one else a favour and sell you products somewhere else as I for one am not the slightest bit interested
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scipio said on Oct 13, 2008....
Must have been pretty tough -suffering from spinal disorder. -
diabolicdame said on Oct 13, 2008....
Hey cj.. that sounds like the start of some novel you know! hehe.. and the protagnist ofcourse goes on to do great things in life.. :-) -
butter1970 said on Oct 13, 2008....
Wow you are a strong person. I too know all about hospitals and pain. Good luck and god bless -
Lucytorial said on Oct 13, 2008....
CJ ~ All I know is that you have a fabulous personality, you're burden is showing the world at least that huh? as for your brother.. don't worry just teasing, you told me about him already.
Comment on "how I became a ......Part One"
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