It all began 30 years ago

On August 31st, 1980 a little girl was born 13 weeks early, weighing 2 lbs 2 oz. Being so premature and having such under developed organs, she was placed in an incubator and monitored around the clock. The nurses were forced to restrain her as she would rip the monitors off her little body. she would continually stop breathing and had various complications. Fighting the restraints, she lifted herself off the little mattress so many times, she caused herself a double hernia. They had to operate. She was also given a higher oxygen level than normal, which could causeblindness. Being born so prematurely had many risk factors. However, no one and nothing was going to stop her from surviving, even if she weighed only 1 lb 7oz at one point and her tiny lungs kept giving out.

Oct 31st, her mother arrived at the hospital to visit her, only to be told something bad had happened. Her mother thought she had died, but fortunately that was not the case. The nurse had dropped the baby girl on her head fracturing her tiny skull. Her mother wondered what new complications could arise from this. She already knew there was a great chance of sicknesses, infections, blindness and mental challenges for her daughters future.

At 4 months old, the baby girl had gained enough weight to finally go home. Instead of her birth being her mothers birthday present, as she was due to be born Dec 9th and her mothers birthday is Dec 7th, her final release from the hospital was. While being home did not mean the complications and health risks were gone, it meant a family could finally be together as one. With the aide of her own parents, the mother was able to manage a jaundiced, cholic baby girl, fighting to survive. This mother was her daughters hero. With her determination and undying love, she fought to give her baby the best medical care she could. She went days without sleep, and found the possible during the impossible. The little girls grandfather would walk the streets with her in his arms. She was not much bigger than the size of his hands.

Through Gods grace and my mothers love, I am still alive today.

I often wonder if all of this attributed to being born with Chiari Malformation. Did my skull grow to small because I was born so under developed? Did the skull fracture change the shape of my head, resulting in it to grow the way it did?

I dont think there is enough research on Chiari to say for sure or not. Perhaps in time, there will be an answer. For now, I concentrate on what I can do to help expand the research that has been done.