In this posting, I’d like to discuss my benign tumor in my wrist and 4 surgeries I had throughout my school-age career. I also want to start by telling you a bit about my background.
Here is a video if you prefer to watch and listen rather than read:)
A Little Bit About My Background
I was adopted by my cousin!
Yes, you read that right. I was adopted at 18 months old so I didn’t really know my biological parents at all. When I speak of my mom and dad in general I’m speaking of my adopted parents because that’s my mom and dad!
My biological father was 1 or 8 and he was on the younger side of these siblings. My biological aunt Mary was the oldest of these 8, and her son, Steve adopted me with his wife Tina. So my biological aunt has been my grandmother all my life!
I absolutely love my family and have no issues talking about these things:) I always tell people my story who want to listen and they are always amazed about this fact.
Mental Illness
My biological parents had mental illnesses that prevented them from being fit parents. They actually met in the hospital and lived on government funds most of their lives despite being very smart.
My biological father went to Williamson Trade School and my biological mother went to Penn State Main Campus! They were both very bright, but they both got into drugs. I don’t know what kind of drugs, but most likely LSD. I was told this is what made them become mentally ill.
Most likely my mother was taking psychoactive drugs during pregnancy because my biological mother and biological father met in the hospital when getting treated for their sickness. The way mental illness is currently treated in hospitals is through a lot of drugs, therapy, and sometimes a hospital stay if there is an episode. Doctors will prescribe so many different things to try and balance out the brain hormones.
If you are dealing with mental illness, these drugs can help calm you down from an “episode”. But I think the long-term goal of these treatments should be to have people off the drugs. Many people stop taking drugs because they make them feel horrible due to side effects and other factors. Part of the problem is that mental illness is just not that well known of what the true causes are which is why treatment is not so great.
Treatment of the mentally ill used to be a lot worse as well even just 60 years ago with all the insane asylums and things of that nature so that just goes to show you how much we know about mental illness.
My point in telling you this is that I most likely inherited heavy metals and toxins from all the drugs they were taking as well as what was already present causing the mental illness.
When I was younger I wasn’t told all of these details about my biological parents. My mother and father wanted to protect me from this information because it isn’t easy to hear! I didn’t know I was adopted until I was 8 years old. Each year my parents would tell me more about how I fell in the family tree and why my biological parents couldn’t take care of me.
I love my mommy and daddy so much for protecting me from the info when I was young. I would have definitely overthought everything and worried about developing these things. So thanks, Mom and Dad:)
The Benign Tumor
So all of that was to prepare you for my troubles at birth. When I was a baby my mother (remember my adopted mother) found a bump on my left wrist. My mother and father searched for the best wrist surgeons in the area and brought me to the very best. They did all the scans and tests and determined it was a benign tumor.
They waited until I was about 5 or 6 to do the first surgery.
I remember waiting for hours in the waiting room because this doctor was the best of the best. His name is Dr. Osterman and I absolutely loved him. His bedside manner was very good and he always made me laugh. In fact, he showed me off to the entire office after my first surgery because I was doing handstands!
My dad always made the time pass well when waiting for these visits as well with cards and he always made me laugh. These are fond memories with my parents, but the surgeries, not so much.
I remember one day going into the office and Dr. Osterman said that tomorrow was going to be the day for surgery. I was so scared. I’ve never had surgery and I knew that they were going to cut into me. I didn’t know what exactly for, but I knew it was serious.
So I went to CHOP really early one morning and they gave me some kind of medicine and I don’t remember what happened after that. Apparently, I walked into a wall! Whatever they gave me completely blacked out my memory!
They removed a piece of the bone on the outside of the wrist where the little bump is. If they didn’t remove this tumor, I would have limited mobility in my wrist as I grew. So they had to take it out.
When I woke up I was VERY nauseous and I had all kinds of cords in me. I think I had to stay in the hospital for at least a week or two and I remember my parents with me all the time. I commend them for everything they did for that because Chris was sick a few years ago, and I hated staying in the hospital a couple of nights!
Anyway, I threw up a lot with the meds they were giving me. I also couldn’t pass bowls so they had to give me a suppository which was VERY painful. I never had this before. I also remember walking around the hospital a couple of days into my stay and like going to this play room and feeling so sorry for the kids in there because they seemed worse off than me.
I went home after a few days and it was a couple of months before I felt better. I had several follow-up visits, and one of the follow-up visits required a cast removal. That was scary because they took a saw to the hard cast. I was so impressed he didn’t get my arm sawing that thing off.
Then, they had to remove these two pins.
I was so scared. One came out just fine, but the other was stuck somewhere in the tissue and I screamed when they took that thing out. It hurt a lot.
I always cheered when I was younger and I was able to do handstands in the PeeWee competition team on the Keystone Cheerleading Team. When I did one of the follow-up visits with Dr. Osterman, he told all the nurses to see my handstand after his surgery! I also lost feeling in my thumb and that was weird.
I had one straight long scar, a zigzag scar, and two pin holes from this first surgery.
Broke it Twice
So a few years go by and I end up breaking my arm when I was running outside and fell on it. It was during the summertime. I was in a lot of pain on the way to the hospital and to set it, they gave me NOTHING! I SCREAMED!
That was a horrible experience.
Then I saw Dr. Osterman again and he determined I needed surgery to get plates and screws in the bone because it broke so badly. The arm breaks more easily because a piece of the bone is missing.
For this surgery, I was awake when they gave me the anesthesia and I HATED it. I kept moving my head around because it smelled so bad. Eventually, they got me to sleep and when I woke up I was in a lot of pain and was very nauseous.
I think I was in the hospital for a shorter stay this time. Having the cast in the summer sucked because it was so hot and I couldn’t really enjoy the pool.
My straight long scar was longer.
A couple of years later around 9 years old I was skating one night and fell. Broke my arm again. I was skating at dusk and my parents told us to be home by dark. I was so scared they would be mad at me because I was still out!
When they got back they were more concerned than mad. At the hospital, they set my arm after they put me to sleep this time! I remember the last time and how much it hurt so I was fighting the medicine they put in my arm so they knew I was really asleep!
For some reason, redheads metabolize anesthesia faster so that’s a thing. I actually woke up during surgery one time, but that’s a story for another day.
So for this surgery, my long straight scar was longer and wider after it healed. It kept getting wider as I grew.
The last surgery
In high school, my left arm started getting pain. I got it checked out by Dr. Osterman, and he mentioned that we would want to do elective surgery to get the plates and screws out of the arm so we could strengthen the bone. Elective surgery meant that I could decide whether or not to have it.
I hated surgery; so I kept putting it off.
Then, a few years later, the thumb started sticking up when I would move it in a certain way. I was also still experiencing pain every once in a while. It turns out, my bone was growing in a way that the tendons were kind of getting stuck around them.
The fix.
Another surgery.
For this one, he wanted to shave down the bone and take out the plates and screws. I was a senior in high school for this one and the tools for anesthesia advanced quite a bit at this point. They did a localized anesthetic where they just put some anesthesia with needles in the arm to numb the area.
They gave me some kind of sedative to calm me down before rolling me into surgery. They told me they could knock me out at any time and to just say the word. I was always very anxious before surgery. I was also very nervous about feeling sick afterward. This localized thing was the answer to the nausea.
I was still awake when they started surgery and I could hear Dr. Osterman sawing away at the bone. I couldn’t feel anything though. A part of me was thinking it would be cool if they put the curtain so I could see. I knew at that point that I wanted to be put down instead because that was a crazy idea! I hated blood and all that.
So I gave the anesthesiologist the look and he put something in my IV and I was out.
When I woke up I was feeling SO GOOD! I wasn’t nauseous and I couldn’t feel a thing in my arm at all. They gave me some crackers and told me to take some Percocets for when the numbing agent wore off.
The crazy thing is, the numbing started wearing off before I even left the hospital. So I made sure to take the meds even though I knew they would make me feel sick.
I was in the worst pain of my life when I got home. They didn’t keep me in the hospital this time at all. I left within a few hours. But I wish they did because I was in SO MUCH PAIN. After the medicine wore off I could FEEL EVERYTHING!
I cried on the couch a lot that day and I remember my mom was busy with something so she wasn’t there and I couldn’t even really get up well, but my cousin who was there helped me with my pillows and stuff. I couldn’t even move and I just cried a lot. The medicine wasn’t helping.
When my mom came home she called the doctor and got me more medicine to help, and it did.
This surgery happened right at the end of high school and I remember being on these painkillers through graduation. I went up to kids I would have never had the guts to go up to sign my yearbook! I always remember that!
