Every scar tells a story

Every Scar Tells A Story.jpg

There are two areas of my life I’m uncomfortable discussing: Relationships/Sexuality and my childhood.  This post is about the latter, based on the IEP’s ,hospital documents and what my parents have told me about  my childhood.

I was born six weeks premature in December 1985 as “Twin B” to my sister’s “Twin A”.  We both were of low birth weight and couldn’t swallow. We were both operated on so we could be fed via a tube in our necks.  As most of the babies in the NICU  around us were dying, we survived.  I thought it was the end… It wasn’t.

At three months, I had surgery on my eyes but my left eye couldn’t be saved. I have blurred vision in that eye.  I walked on my tiptoes at first but I had surgery at three years old, only for the doctor to cut the wrong tendon.   As if my eyes and legs weren’t trouble enough, I also had surgery to put tubes  into my ears as I had trouble hearing and ear infections were common.

My legs gave me the most trouble of all. I had another leg surgery at the start of middle school but that didn’t take. This lead to years of braces, insoles and a device that attached at the hip that went all the way down to my legs.

By the time end of Sophomore year of high school, it was time for another leg surgery. In July 2001, I had the first of two leg surgeries in six weeks at the Hospital for Special Surgery.  At rock bottom resting in bed and unable to move, I went through the first prescription of Vicodin like it was candy. Nine months of rehab would follow the second surgery in August 2001 and the following Summer, I was able to take the brace off my leg and walk on my own two feet for the first time in my life. For the first time in my life, I was as close to normal as I’d ever get.

All of this came  from the diagnosis that I have a mild form of Cerebral Palsy or so the IEP’s tell me  yet it seems like a complete mystery now.   I have the scars of the surgeries but my memories of these events are hazy and/or repressed. What is the nature of my disability if it affected me greatly in the past but is not as prevalent now?  The one thing I know for sure is that I’m thankful every day that I’m still alive even if life is more cloudy than sunny.

Oswald Perez

He writes to share the world through his eyes using words, photos and prose. He inspires people to tell their stories because their stories are ART.

http://www.oswaldperez.com
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