♿How my Disability affects my body♿

 I want to start off by saying a huge thank you for the overwhelming support I have received from my last blog post. To be honest, I was speechless, and often times I had tears in my eyes because I just didn't expect the love and support that came flooding my way. THANK YOU!♥

Since posting my last blog post, I have gotten many questions about exactly how my disability affects me and my body, so I thought, why not make a blog post about it.

One widespread misconception people have is that you must be paralyzed when you are disabled and a wheelchair user. No, no, and NO!

There are literally millions of different disabilities, and different disabilities take a different form in everybody.

First a little information about pregnancies, now bere with me this is important.

A normal healthy pregnancy usually lasts between 38 to 40 weeks, sometimes 41 weeks. 

I was born at 27 weeks, and I weighed in at 2.2 lbs and just 24 cm long (9.4 inches).

It's hard to find good photos where I can actually show you how small I was without having to show you a photo of a real baby that size, but hopefully, you will kinda see.

This is a 27-week belly and baby.
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This is a 39-week belly and baby. This is usually when the baby decides to come out♥ , and it is safe to do so.

This is me trying to explain as simply as I can so that everybody can understand.

So at 27 weeks, I was quick to enter the world and concur with it!

There was just one problem, my lungs had not formed. I could not breathe on my own.
so the doctors placed me in an incubator 

It looks like this, and it basically is designed to mimic the environment a baby would have if it was still in the belly.



I was also placed under ultraviolet lights because most premature babies are born with jaundice, which basically means yellow tinting of the skin.

I am not really sure what ultraviolet light is supposed to do because I am not trained in the medical profession, even though I might seem to be.

Being born sober premature, my lungs were basically nonexistent. I could not keep my body temperature by myself, so the incubator was warmed up, and I was wrapped in blankets. The incubator was basically my home until my original due date.



My mom actually told me I looked like the world's tiniest burrito.

To my surprise, there was never really a question of whether I would survive or not.

The question was more about my body tolerating the number of heavy medications they would have to put me on.

The doctors had a very positive outlook and told my mom that I most likely would not have any form of disability; what happened next was the moment that would. changed my life forever

I guess it was a normal day at the intensive care unit a lot of people running around a lot of new parents visiting their critically ill babies.

One nurse would make a mistake that would haunt her for the rest of her life.



Remember, my lungs were already trying to keep me alive even though I shouldn't be. She made the mistake of turning down my oxygen when she thought she was turning it up.

I became oxygen-deprived, which ultimately caused my brain injury, a brain injury, that would be discovered two years later.

To be continued...

/Tessa