So you probably looked at my title, and you might not have understood that first phrase I used. Well, I'm about to drop a little minor medical knowledge on y'all. The Foramen Magnum is one of the foramina, or openings in your skull. You have quite a number of them, how many I'm not quite sure. You could probably ask your doctor or look it up yourself, but it's not important right now. Anyway, if you paid attention in Latin class or Latin roots in Bio class, (I still remember my Latin roots tests in Ms. Szeliga's 10th grade bio class) the Foramen Magnum is the largest of all the foramina. It is at the base of your skull. For my neuro/psych nerds its located in the occipital area of the skull. It is where your spine enters your skull and becomes your brain stem.
Here is an image to give you an idea:
Minor digression. Your Medulla Oblongata is located on the brainstem. The medulla is responsible for making your heart and lungs "go". So basically your heart beats because of the medulla, and you automatically breathe because of the medulla. Let's just say, it's super duper important. But keep that information in the back of your mind throughout this post.
When I was only 12 months old, "3 days after her first birthday" my mother recites back to my father an I as I type this, I was on the operating table to have a foramen magnum decompression. Let's break that down. We know what a foramen magnum is. Decompression means that something was compressing or squeezing something, in this case, my foramen magnum was compressing my brain stem. A very skilled surgeon had to take a medical (for lack of a better term) drill, and drill away bits of my skull so that it would not compress my brainstem. That's a really serious operation.
Anyway, currently I have a pinched nerve in my neck that causes me pain in my neck and goes all the way down my right arm. It gives me a lot of pain, but I don't let it slow me down. Just like I don't let my foramen magnum decompression slow me down. Sure, I can't play contact sports like soccer, for fear of heading the ball, or hockey because in both sports I could bash my head and literally send my spinal cord through my brain. But I'm still active. Just because I've had this major surgery doesn't mean I can't do things that everyone else does. Just because I'm small doesn't mean I can't do things that everyone else does. I just have to approach things differently. Medically, I'll have to treat things differently such as this pinched nerve. Getting things off the shelf is an obvious situation where I have to be creative. But in any sense, my situation is different, so my solutions are always going to be different, so they may not always come to mind right away.
Basically the foramen magnum decompression was a a very complicated segway into a situation that I'm constantly thrust into. People, family, friends, coworkers, and even strangers, have a tendency to take it upon themselves to decide what I am capable and incapable of doing. I could rattle off a ton of reasons why people feel this way. They worry for my back, they worry for my size, they worry while I'm on stools, while I'm standing on a chair, while I'm doing this, they worry for this reason, that reason, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Can I just tell you right now, that I'm 23 years old. I've been doing this since I've been walking. I've been walking since I was 2 years old. That's 21 years of practicing these tactics. I have a better laymen's understanding of physics than the average person. So I promise, I know what I'm doing.
If you studied something, or practiced something for a long time, and then someone came up to you and said "oh no, you can't do that", it would be really frustrating to you. You may have gone to college for your profession. What if a newcomer, or someone who has not studied your profession came in and started to tell you how to do your job? But you weren't allowed to say anything because it would be impolite. It would burn you up inside, I assure you!
Let me open a window into the mindset that I was brought up with. Some might call it mildly politically incorrect, so put on your big kid pants for this next sentence. When I was a baby, and I would whine for things that were just out of reach, that would just need a simple roll over or a farther reach, my father would say to me, "you're not crippled, just short". For those who need it in more pretty terms, my dad was saying "You can do anything, it's just going to take different tactics because you are different".
I CAN do everything that I want to do. I WILL do everything that I want to do. But you know what? It WON'T measure up to your concept of normal. Normal is stupid. Normal is a poisonous word. The fact that the word normal was ever made, and the stereotypes that went along with it, is a travesty. AVERAGE is okay. Average is defined as "a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, in particular the mode, median, or (most commonly) the mean, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number" (Google). Normal is what makes people think that those who stray from the median line are "bad" or "weird".
I'll step off my soap box now. To try to wrap everything up in a neat little package: looking at me, you wouldn't know that I had that major surgery at just one year old. You also don't know everything that I've been through. The only person that has been through every moment of my life is me. Only I know my true capabilities, and only I should be the one telling myself what I can and can't do. Aside from medical advice, I know what I am capable and incapable of; and I know that I am capable of great things. Things beyond my size.
Peace, Love, and Otters my friends!
Laura
I love these Laura! Keep up the great work you are doing here, and everywhere else! Janet
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