Saturday 20 June 2009

My Leg Life Story

Well, I Guess This Is For People Who Are Interested But Are Too Polite To Ask About My Leg. :) Or Just For You Lot To Get An Insight Of How Everything Happened. Or For People Who Want To Understand All The 'Ooohh Interesting' Savvy Parts :P. Anyways, Here Goes!



During My Early Years As A Baby, My Mum Had Discovered That I Had A Blue Toe.. So She Took Me To The Doctors And He Said - "It Should Go Away Soon - Nothing To Worry About". This Was The Start Of How I've Walked For The Whole Of My Life. This 'Blue Toe' Was In Fact A Venous Malformation. (If You Like Wiki - I Suggest You Check This Out On There!) I Must Warn You Though, If You Haven't Seen My Toe Before - It's Kinda Gross; Somone Nearly Threw Up. Haha. Anyway, From When I Was 2 Years Old - When I Started Walking - My Parents Noticed That I Always Walked On My Toes On My Left Foot. They Assumed I Was Just Being Silly - But When They Asked Me, I Replied Because It Hurts Too Much. So Again, My Mum Took Me To The Doctors To Examine My Leg. He Then Found Out That I Had A Shortened Achilles Tendon.



8 Years Later, Through Intensive & Excruciating Physio, - What I Now Know As PAIN! - Meeting The Hundreds Of 'Specialists' In The Country, The Many Times I Doomed The MRI Scanner, And The Constant Words From My Parents Saying "You Can Do It".. No-one Knew What Was Wrong With My Leg, And Nothing Changed How I Walked. So, Under Belief Of Having A Shortened Achilles Tendon, In Late July Of 2002, I Had My First Operation.



This Operation Was To Lengthen My Achilles Tendon, This Being The Cure And Finally To Walk On My Heel! So I Went In, And Woke Up After the Operation To A Seriously Thick Plaster Cast Wrapped Around My Left Leg. A Day Later, I Was Out Of The Hospital Bed, Attempting To Walk To The Wheelchair To Go For Physio. (PAIN!) It Was Weird - Dangling My Helpless Leg Over The Side Of The Bed, And The Great Weight Of The Cast Pulling Me Down. My Right Foot Hit The Floor, And Then Very Suddenly Came My Left. It Really Hurt. I Dragged My Cast Along The Floor And Pathetically Hobbled Over To The Chair.



Now What Was To Come Next In My Eyes, Was Hell. I Got Wheeled Off By My Very Lovely Nurse Lisa, Who Took Me To The Casting Room. (No, I Didn't Get As Far As Hollywood.. Haha) Well, The First Time I Went In, The Room Was Boiling, And There Was A Strong Smell Of Bleach Cleaned Air. Mr.Coates (My Specialist At The Time) Popped Me Up Onto The Bed And Told Me To Relax. I Know Why He Told Me That, Because He Came Back With An Electric Saw! Sure, I Was Gonna Be Cool As A Cucumber.. Are You Kidding Me?!? At Ten Years Old - Yah, Right! I Was Screaming And Shaking. I Kept Thinking He'd Saw Right Down Through My Leg - Hence The Screaming. He Probably Would've If I Didn't Stop Moving! Haha. But What Then Happened, He Told Me Just To Keep Calm, And That This Would Only Tickle. He Placed The Saw Onto The Cast - And What He Said Was True!



The Cast Vibrated So Much, It Was Hard Not To Laugh! By A Couple Of Minutes Later, The Cast Came Off And I Was Ready To Climb Back Into The Wheelchair - But Oh No. He Then Wanted To 'Test' My Leg. He Attempting By Straightening It Out. This Was NOT Going To Happen. No Matter How Hard He Had To Push Down On My Knee, The Different Positions For The Leg To Be Placed - No. It Wasn't Working. He Sighed, And Then Came Back With A Reel Of Thick Cotton Wool And A Bandage. He Not Only Put On One Cast - He Put A Second Cast On Top! Great, Another Heavy Cast To Lug About. This Cast Was Slightly Cooler Than My Last Boring White One - This One Was Red :). A Couple More Days In The Hospital Learning How To Use Crutches, Up & Down Stairs, Getting In & Out Of Cars, And Generally Learning How To Walk. And Also Getting Given A Big Plastic Water Protector And An Ultra Cool Blue Sandal - My Time Was Up In Hospital.



After A Few Weeks, When My Parents Asked Me To Walk On My Heel, It Never Happened. I Tried Placing It On The Floor - But It Was So Painful I Couldn't. My Parents Were Pretty Annoyed Saiyng Such Things Like "You Can Do It, You Just Had That Operation To Make You Walk Properly" , "I Think You're Just Lying Because You Don't Want To Walk On It" Or "It Would Be Painful At First, But You've Just To Get Over It." And Other Words To That Effect. This Wasn't Very Supportive, And I Wasn't Lying. It Was Kind Of Like There Was A Tug-Of-War Going On Inside Of My Leg. Both Sides Were Of Equal Strength. So If I Really Did Try To Force My Heel To The Ground - This Rope Would Surely Snap And I'd Be In Pain Forever.



I Had To Have My Red Cast Off After 3 Weeks, In Exchange For A Blue One! Another 3 weeks Of The Blue One, Where I Cycled My Bike Even With A Cast On, And Climbed Trees, Before I Knew It Another 3 Weeks Flew By And It Was Time To Saw It Off. I Was Kinda Annoyed After The Amount Of People Who Signed It, And Then Having To Saw It Off & Getting It Chucked In The Bin - I Wasn't So Happy. But Thankyou To Everyone Who Did! :) I Went Back To The Doctors, The Operation Obviously Didn't Work. Words Couldn't (Well Probably Could In Profanity) Describe How Annoyed Myself, My Parents, My Friends Were About This.



A Few Months Later And I Then Had Another MRI Scan. Only This Time They Found That I Had Excess Skin Tissue & My Ligaments Were In A Way 'Locked' Behind And Over My Knee - The Reason Why I Couldn't Straighten My Leg Out After All These Years! The Doctor Back Then Suggested I See This Specialist To Solve This Whole Problem. We Took It Into Account, But 5 Years Had Flown By With Given Up Hope For Me. It Was Starting To Bother Me Again, With The Amount Of People In Public, On Camps, At Guides, At Cadets Asked Me The Exact Same Words Everytime - "What's Wrong With Your Leg?". I Like People Being Curious About It As It Gives Me Something Interesting To Tell. I Decided To Ask Mum If I Could See This Specialist To Solve This Problem. Now, After All The 'Specialists' I've Met In My 15 Years - This Guy Was Thee Pro. He Was 1 Out Of The 4 People In The Whole World Who Specialised In This 'Topic'.



So Earlier This Year, Myself & Mum Headed Up To Hammersmith Hospital In London To See Him. His Name Is Mr.Stansfield. Not Dr - No All Specialists Are Too Clever To Have Dr At The Front Of Their Name :). He Was 50 Odd, Quite Large And Had A Brilliant Somerset Accent. This Really Helped With My Drama - Shame it Wasn't Quite In Context.. Haha. Anyway, He Examined My Leg, And Said After 5 Minutes: "You're Going To Need 5 or 6 Operations. We'll Book You An MRI Scan Appointment For 6 Months Time To See What's Going On. We'll Have To Operate On You When You're Fully Grown - After Your GCSEs. Sound Alright?"



"Sound Alright"!?!?! YES! So Now - It's Exactly A Year Before The Biggest & Busiest Day Of My Life. I Undergo 5/6 Operations. 1) Firstly Remove This Excess Skin Tissue In My Calf. 2) 'Unlock' Ligaments At Back Of The Knee 3) 'Unlock' Ligaments Over Front Of My Knee. 4) Lengthen My Achilles Tendon (Again!) 4) Adjust The Position Of My Ankle (Don't Know How Exactly They're Going To Do It!) And Finally (Maybe) 6) Plastic Surgery Over The Whole Of My Leg. This Is If I Don't Want All The Scars To Be Shown.. And My Purple Toe Got Rid Of (Not Literally!) And Then After All That.. I'll Have A Lovely Plaster Cast From The Thigh Down. Brilliant Ey?



After The Operations, I'll Have Yet More Intensive Pain, (Physio) For Like, Ages. The Least Being 4 Months. So Who Knows! But With Whatever The Outcome - I Assure You That I'll Be Working My Arse Off! I Want This Leg To Be Perfect And If Blood, Sweat & Tears Is The Case - So Be It. This'll Be My Biggest Project I Want To Work My Hardest On. I've Talked To Alot Of People About My Leg, And Everyone Has Been Very Supportive Towards Me. From My Parents Carting Me Around To All Different Hospitals; To Friends Saying They'll Visit Me In Hospital To Fatten Me Up With Chocolate No Doubt, And To Be With Me When I Learn How To Walk For The First Time Ever; To My Boyfriend Who Will Keep Me Company And Give My Hayfever With Flowers! I Thank You All And Love You All So Much. I Do Hope It All Goes Well And I Have A Strong Faith In All These Specialists, Doctors, Nurses Who All Believe It's Possible & Will Work.

4 comments:

  1. Wooooooo, Good Luck And Everything, Fine If You Dont Want To Be Fattened Up I Will Bring U A Nice Salad :P:P Talk Soon!!! xxx

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  2. By Adi. U know I'll be there all the way darling. Chocs, Lambrusco, and lots and lots of love, as always
    Auntie (yeah right)! Adi
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  3. AAAaaahhhh it all makes sense now :P

    In my defence for never asking what was up with it, I figured I didn't have to know what was wrong exactly, provided I knew that it sometimes causes you problems with stuff. Seem fair??

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  4. Deffo :) lol
    It's Rather A Long And Complex Story That If Anyone Wanted To Know - They Could Haha :)

    Cheers Anyways!

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