Fight for Preemies

So it has been a while blog-friends!  I apologize for that, it has busy, busy, busy here in Aberdeen!  Add in the Thanksgiving holiday, and where did November go?!

One important event in November that I have neglected to blog about occurred on November 17th.  November is Prematurity Awareness Month and November 17th was Prematurity Awareness Day, or Fight for Preemies Day, sponsored by the March of Dimes.  As part of this day, bloggers across the country signed up via Bloggers Unite to Fight for Preemies by posting about someone in their life that was born too soon, too small, or too sick.  It is these babies that March of Dimes fights for when they raise money for research into premature birth and birth defects.

I wanted to be sure to post this before the end of November, and I definitely let it go until the last minute, but to be honest, I was still a bit unsure about whether or not I wanted to post my story.  Although I've never been shy about telling this story, doing so on a public blog is a little different--of course assuming people actually still read this! :)  So here goes nothing!

The premature baby that I want to blog about is actually, well, me!  I was born at 36 weeks, so 4 weeks premature.  Not too early really, and weighing in at over 7 pounds and 21 inches long, not that small either!  But I was born with a condition known as Goldenhar Syndrome.  GS is part of a spectrum of diseases called the oculo-auriculo-vertebral syndromes or OAVS.  So as you can see from the spectrum, they primarily affect the eye, ear, and vertebrae. Goldenhar specifically affects one side of the face and/or body. For me, it is my left side and as a result I was born without my left eye, with a misshapen left ear which I cannot hear out of, and my top two vertebrae are partially fused.  I also had hydrocephalus, meaning excess fluid around my brain, which was drained my inserting a shunt that drained the fluid from my head to my stomach.  There are a few other issues I have had to deal with, but overall, nothing that continues to cause difficulty or will affect me too much in the future.

Even with all of those challenges, and seven surgeries under my belt to correct different things, I've managed to live a fairly normal life.  Some people with Goldenhar Syndrome and other OAVS conditions aren't so lucky.  Many have upwards of 40 or 50 surgeries and still face many physical and mental obstacles every day.  I consider myself very lucky to have only a mild case of GS and have only physical issues to cope with.

The last thing I would share with you about GS and OAVS, is that there is very little known about what causes these defects.  That is why organizations such as March of Dimes and events like Fight for Preemies are so important.  They support research into premature birth and birth defects in hopes of reducing the amount of babies born too soon.

I know everyone has a lot of demand on their finances during this time of year, but if you have even a little bit to spare, consider giving it to the March of Dimes in hopes that no parent will ever have to lose a child born too soon and no premature baby will ever have to face serious health challenges again.

Thanks for reading and for Fighting for Preemies!!