#hemimelia

[teratogenics]

“You’re Mine” by Mari Katayama [2014]

[ergothemagnificent]

Explaining My Absence - Organism

Even if I post nothing but quotes for a while at least that's something right? Still I'm up and awake at only half 11 and writing something else so that's good. I've done precious little else this week but just let things play out and sit on the sidelines for a while. Something I found necessary because of the state of my mind and the state of my back. It's nothing severe but on top of the other stuff I have to deal with it could turn nasty if the worst should occur. So in manner of an explanation, here goes my dear Tumblr:

I have a birth defect known as Left Sided Fibular Hemimelia (A condition quite uncommon hence why my autocorrect is having trouble believing it's a word). It's nothing genetic, it's a case of bad luck basically. A mild mutation somewhere in my D.N.A decided I don't need a fibula in my left leg (Which I do) and because of that I was born with my left leg shorter than the other, the foot angled oddly and the muscles that were supposed to attach to the fibula have nowhere to go so they throw all my other muscles microscopically out of place which is why I don't play guitar, handle firearms, conduct the London Symphony Orchestra or have neat handwriting. Basically it's really inconvenient, occasionally painful and hard to walk and ultimately it'll degrade and make walking even more difficult for me. This can happen in a number of ways, for example I could break my tibia, I could suffer problems with the femur or the knee and last but not least problems based in or around the bottom of my spine (eep) which unfortunately includes muscular problems. That's not supposed to happen until I'm an old man so that's why I'm being so very careful at the moment. I don't want to have to learn to walk AGAIN and I don't want to be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of my days. 

Up until being late into the age of 18 I've been a patient at Sheffield Children's Hospital (Who I can't thank enough) who helped me through several leg lengthening procedures. These procedures are surgical in nature but they take a long time to complete (Anywhere from 3 months to 9 months or more) and involve the use of a certain piece of mechanical equipment called an Ilizarov Fixator which is essentially a plethora of strategically placed surgical needles hooked onto a metal frame that can be moved along a vertical and horizontal plane through the use of screws (Like medicine only stranger, instead of 5 pills a day it could be 5 half or quarter turns). I've had 3 fixators and I'm not eager to have any more. It was necessary in order to make the Hemimelia manageable and I've finished all the treatment deemed compulsory in order to lead a life that will only be mildly affected by this. Still I suspect that reading about it on my CV is off-putting to prospective employers and that's annoying considering there's supposed to be no discrimination. At least no obvious discrimination. However, I digress... 

Basically, Tumblr Wall/People/Friends/Internet Bots, that's why I've been nowhere lately. Explanation over.

Rather than show you my fixator (Could be a bit disturbing to see) here's an example on a cgi bone. In this example there are only 8 needles, I had to put up with something more like 20ish over the course of my last treatment.