The Happenings of My Life!: September 2011

I have had requests to write out my "story" and why I've had to have so many. So here it is!

I was born with a birth defect called "Medial Cleft Syndrome." I was born with a completely flat nose, a hole in my lip, and skin tags. You can see in the pictures! :) I was about 18 months old when I had my very first surgery. They removed my skin tags and repaired the hole in my lip.

I had my second surgery when I was about 2 1/2. I honestly can't remember what they did. I think they just tried to fix my nose, but I'm not 100% sure.

My third surgery was my big one. My 14 hour one. I can remember bits and pieces of that surgery. I know that I was 3 1/2. I remember waking up in recovery and my dad was at the side of me. I couldn't move, but when I opened my eyes, the recovery room was green. (Must of been the drugs)!! I remember my dad saying he was there. I told him I felt like I was going to be sick. I couldn't move, so I just threw up, and it went all over my dad's shoe. I remember the nurses moving me to a new bed, to change the other bed. I had my eyes removed from my sockets and put back in, my brain was scraped from my forehead, and they took a piece of my forehead bone and put it in my nose! The drs told my parents that I would be in the hospital for 3 weeks. I proved them wrong. I was only there for a week! :) My eyes were swollen shut for, I don't even know how long! I had 14 staples going across my head--ear to ear-- and getting those suckers out HURT!!! The whole week I was there,(I had the majority of my surgeries at Primary Children's Medical Center, in SLC, UT)I wanted to just go on wagon rides, and eat the pink frosted sugar cookies! :) If I had those two things, life was good! :)

I have had numerous sets of ear tubes. I have probably had 4-5 surgeries just for ear tubes!

When I was 6 years old, I had my tonsils taken out at EIRMC in Idaho Falls, ID. That surgery was nothing to some of my others!

When I was in 8th grade, I had braces, and I kept getting a puffy pus pocket where the metal was rubbing up on my gums. I thought I was allergic to the metal. Turns out, I had a cyst. So over Christmas Break of my 8th grade, I had the cyst taken care of. My mom got to watch that surgery because I made her swear to me that she wouldn't leave.

My sophomore year of high school was when I had to have another surgery. I missed a week of school. On April 10th, 2009, I went to have my nose done. I had 2 bones that had collapsed inside my nose sometime in my lifetime, not sure when, but as far as I knew, I was just going into get the bones in my nose fixed. Little did I know, they would be doing more. This is when I became upset with my mom. She knew they were doing more than what she told me. When I woke up in recovery--around 11:00-11:30, I noticed something different about my left ear. I asked the nurse, still drugged up, what they did. She said they had taken a piece of cartilage from my ear to put in the tip of my nose. I just said okay and went back to sleep. I let my mom know how frustrated I was that she didn't tell me later. I sobbed about it. I remember it being Easter weekend. Not the best way to spend a holiday on Hydrocodone. I had a splint on my nose for a week. That was the biggest pain in my butt EVER!! I have never itched so much in my life!! My splint fell off the day before I had to go get checked, so I panicked, and called the dr's office frantically. They told me it was nothing to worry about.

June 2nd, 2010 I had my wisdom teeth out. They had to put me completely out (right in the drs office) because my blood pressure was so high from the anxiety. I think that surgery only took about 45 minutes. I remember the recovery room and everyone laughing at me becaue I was drugged up and saying funny things! :) I was very lucky and didn't get dry sockets! I lived on mashed potatoes and hydrocodone for a good 4 days. So glad those days are over!!

Now that you know all about my surgeries, you're probably thinking I'm strong and tough and all that good stuff. But to be completely honest, every time a doctor tells me I have to have surgery, I panic. The stress sets in, and I get sick from all the worry. To this day, I am nervous to go to the dr because I don't want to hear the words "We can do surgery to correct this." Now that I am 18 though, I am the one who has to give the doctor permission to operate. Unless it's a life or death situation, I am not having anymore surgeries. I am 120% happy and confident with the way I look and I wouldn't change ANYTHING!!! :) I think that me being put through all those surgeries has made me stronger. I know that if I didn't go through it, I probably would be a wimp.