Do I Dare. . .

My mind is racing in a million different directions…..where do I start. As you know by now, I’m a #little_person or #person_of_short_stature (a.k.a. #dwarf). What you need to understand is that back in 1960/1961 very little was known about #dwarfism and as a result I have never had any “specialized” care or “specialized” doctors, etc.

I adapted to the world as I needed to in order to have, what in my mind was, an average life. I had a successful career for 30 years, owned my own home, had a new car, went on vacations, etc., to me, lived an “normal” life.

Fast forward to 2016, by now I was in need of new hips. Again, not living any form of a “special” life, I contributed needing new hips to both ageing and of course being aware that my physical characteristics would eventually lead to degenerative bones. After surgery gone terribly wrong, leaving me #paralyzed from the waist down, I for the first time in my life became handicapped/disabled.

Fast forward to 2020, 4 years have passed, 4 years of life in a #wheelchair 👩‍🦽, 4 years of being totally dependent on another person for the simplest daily tasks like getting in/out of bed or going to the bathroom or handing me a tissue 😢 and so much more.

As a result being forced to now live life as a paralyzed little person, I found myself searching social media for groups of people that may be in the same situation. Hmm 🤔, why suddenly look for people like me, like I said before, I think for the first time in my life (some 55 years in 2016) I now felt #isolated, #different, #disabled, #handicapped, etc. I was wondering how others go through life unable to reach anything, and yes, I was secretly wondering can this #paralysis be corrected. I say secretly because to be honest, I was and am, afraid to hope, afraid to wish 🤞.

In my searching I met a woman from upstate NY who told me about a doctor from West Palm Beach FL who is an orthopedic expert and specializes in dwarfism and various other skeletal conditions. She gave me a reason to say “maybe.”

I first reached out to the doctor in November 2019. Then came the holidays and the beginning of 2020. After a few emails back and forth providing more details about my lifestyle prior to paralysis, and now after, we were getting closer to discussing specifics and then #COVID19.

Fast forward to 7-27-2020, I had a teleconference with the doctor. The doctor said he’d like to do a decompression of my thoracic spine. He said this paralysis shouldn’t have happened to me, it didn’t have to happen. He feels pretty confident that he can correct the pins & needles/numbness in my left foot, he also feels he can improve my bladder/bowels function (since it’s not completely gone) and he thinks maybe, just maybe, no guarantee but maybe my right leg could get strong enough to hold me up. . .

Dare I Wish. . . Dare I Hope. . .

As always, I wish you days filled with WONDER – take a minute to WONDER what it is that made you smile today! 😃

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