Swimming Against The Current

I started my senior year of high school happy as could be cheering once again for the varsity squad. My sophomore and junior year went great and I was expecting the same for my senior year. I was tumbling, stunting, and everything else I never thought I would be doing when I first injured my shoulder. Both my shoulders bothered me a little but nothing worth quitting over. I made it through the season and was getting ready for our last game. It was Thanksgiving and we were going to Nashoba high school. I was so excited because I was almost able to do a roundoff handspring tuck by myself and thought I would try it out at that game. I asked a couple girls to stand near me incase I needed someone to spot me. One...Two...Three.. and off I went, running down the track ready to do this. On my way, I tripped over my foot and still tried to do it. There was no way for anyone to spot me and down I went. I fell on my right shoulder and could not move. Just when I thought things were gr...

My daughter is what keeps me going. Every morning when I wake up in pain, I look into Hailey's eyes and realize how lucky I am to be her mother. She is absolutely perfect in every way and I can't imagine how I ever lived without her. She's growing quickly, already 3 weeks old and becoming more and more alert. She loves to be rocked, loves her hair bows and loves to look into mommy and daddys eyes. I am so excited about our life together and watching her grow. My dystonia is getting worse and worse. I am really getting frustrated with it and with the health care here in Florida. My right hand goes numb when I carry something on that shoulder, I get spasms in both my feet and my neck has been getting stuck. The skin on my left hand is just falling off and is now bleeding. Taking care of Hailey is so difficult because I never know when a spasm is going to happen and it scares me to death. I have called what seems like every neurologist in the state of Florida and no one accept...

September 29, 2010 was the happiest day of my life. I went to the hospital at about 6am with an appointment to be induced. The labor and delivery floor was packed, I guess it was a popular day to have babies. I had to sit in the waiting room for about a half hour and anxiously wait for a room to be available. Once I was in a room they hooked me up to the monitors, gave me an IV, did some blood work and told me I was 4 1/2 cm dilated. I was having contractions but not strong enough so they started pitocin to get the labor going. By about noon time I was having pretty strong contractions that were getting more and more painful. My plan was to not get an epidural but by 7cm, I changed my mind. After I got it I was really happy I did and things seemed to go much quicker from then on. Around 5:00 I was 10cm and ready to go. I started pushing and at 6:34 pm I heard the most wonderful sound I have ever heard, my little girl cry for the first time. They put her on my chest and the s...