This Is Me ♛

          My name is Brittney I am 19 years old and have an identical twin sister named Breanna I live in sunny California with my family and three dogs.  I was born on July 29, to wonderful parents Jeff & Tina they have always been there for me. At 11 months of age I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy Spastic Quadriplegic.  My parents took me to the doctors because I wasn't meeting milestones that I should have been meeting for my age. We signed in we sat down and we waited for them too call us back to be seen. So they call my name we go back and then wait for the doctor to come inn a few minutes later he comes in checks me over, hands me a toy and I handed it back to him, he  looks at my parents and says your daughter has a severe case of Cerebral Palsy and will be on a wheelchair bed for the rest of her life and will never be a productive part of society. That I would not be able to do anything for my self. They were devastated of what they had just heard and they had a lot of questions that they wanted answered but before they could have any of the questions answered the doctor quickly rushed out the room. They were left with so many questions unanswered they didn't know what to think so we went home with my new diagnosis and my mother went on a quest to find out everything she could about my diagnosis. So that's where I started my journey of a lifetime. However at the age of 4 I still was not able to walk nor crawl "correctly" I was able to army crawl by pulling my myself with my arms while dragging my body along the floor to get around the house my doctors put me in leg braces called a.f.o's to keep my ankles bent straight to be able to walk with a walker. My twin sister and I both started preschool at the age of 3 because our parents wanted to give us every advantage we could get to be ahead. I avoided surgery until I was 5 years old and my first surgery was in San Diego California I had my pink cast on for four weeks those weeks were the hardest four weeks I couldn't sit comfortably or even bathe easily. My cast were all the way up close to my knees I had two incisions one at my achilles tendons and one at my knee flexors on the back of my knees.  The cast would rub against my wounds on the back of my knee flexors every time I would crawl and it would cause pain/discomfort. They only wanted it up to my knees so I would still be able to bend my knees and I'm allergic to surgical tape, stitches (sutures) and glue and the day I had them taken off all I wanted to do was walk. so I did until 3am from one side of my living room to the other, finally mom made me go to sleep for school the next day. I didn't care if I was tired the next day at school or not I could walk and I was so excited about it. Dr. Browning my doctor at the time thought it was a good idea to do surgery on both of legs to loosen and cut both my Achilles tendon and my knee flexors. All I did was lay on the couch and played video games all day. Trust me, all I wanted to do is go outside and play some basketball with my friends but that was impossible to do but hey a girl can dream can't she? But that dream was short lived because a couple of weeks later I finally got them off. The morning I got them off I got dressed. My mom, sisters got in the car I hopped in the car we we're headed off to Kaiser. We found a park in the parking lot, gotten out and I had taken my walker because this was the first time being outside especially in a car since my surgery. It still very hard to walk but those cast seemed to make it impossible to walk anywhere even the house. While I was walking up to the doors at Kaiser half way up I tripped and I scrapped my elbow, I was bleeding but it wasn't bad at all. I signed in to the doctors they told us to go sit down and wait for them to call my name so a couple of minutes later they finally call my name so my mom and I went into the cast room and I was crying because I knew the noise would scare me the nurse told me it wouldn't hurt but I knew it wouldn't hurt. He started to cut it only took a few minutes to cut both of them off I was so relieved that I finally got them off after all this time, while I was on the examining table after I got them off my mom put my socks on and my legs went form a straight position to were I could bend my legs to my knees. I got off the table grabbed my walker and started walking out of the room took me a minute to figure out how to walk again because my feet were in the cast for a very long time it's like my feet can finally breath again lol it was hard but I finally figured it out by that time I was unstoppable I was doing everything it felt great to be able to go outside and play with all my friends I loved that I could finally do what every kid at my age was doing modifying it of course. I went to school couple of days later and and I went to Panama Elementary School  K-3 then when I was 9 years old I had my second surgery that surgery was done here in Bakersfield , California  at  Community Memorial Hospital early in the morning, Breanna and I both missed our valentines Day party that day when it was getting close to time they called me back to a room put me in a bed and covered me up I cried when it was time I was so scared because I didn't know what was going to happen so my mom and dad left the room they wheeled me to the operating room I remember seeing my doctor and a few nurses in the room I had a guy nurse put the sleeping mask on me but what was weird after few minutes after I was out I felt them turn me over on my stomach but I don't remember anything else after that but , all I remember was waking up with two blue cast on my legs with a pillow underneath them it was so hard to move it hurt so bad. They sent me home the same day my parents were very upset that they basically kick me out of the hospital because for my first surgery in San Diego I stayed for a week we all didn't understand why they were doing it. So once I got them off I finally went back to school I was in RSP in  4-6 grade I got moved out of Panama because they took out the special ed class to make room for a regular teacher we were all pretty mad about having to move schools especially for me because I was leaving behind my twin sister Breanna. My teacher Miss Angell went looking for a new school for us to go too first it was going to go to Van Horn but turns out they didn't have room for us either so we had to look for a different school by then my teacher had come across Buena Vista Elementary tuns out they had room for us there so we went to school there. I stayed in those classes for 3 years with the same teacher Miss Angell,  she was the best teacher I ever had. By the time I left she basically knew everything about me we had a bond that couldn't break but I was happy that I made it through Elementary school. I was put in Special Ed classes to help me with my work so I didn't fall behind. Special Ed was classes were we all learning at our own pace and not like the regular classes were everything was fast pace. If it wasn't for special Ed I don't know if I would have made it in school because some of the work would be hard and I wouldn't have gotten the help like I did , the other classes had like 24 kids but my class maybe had 10 students so we got more one on one help with our work to understand it more. Then Junior High came around it was no doubt that I wouldn't be in special Ed this time, my teacher was a guy named Mr. Olinger I also stayed in those classes with the same teacher for 2 years then I went to Stonecreek Junior High School for 7-8 grade. A few days before graduation my doctor took me out of school for a medical issue but I still  graduated from Stonecreek  Jr. High then it was summer time best part not waking up early. Then August came around a few days before school started my mom asked me if It would just be easier to do home school I agreed so we tried it out it worked then the Special Coordinator at Ridgeview High  thought it was good for me to attend school because they didn't think about keep doing home school was the best idea well she was wrong. All her efforts failed and I stayed on home school for the rest of my high school career I was still able to go to football games etc. I was also ready to start something new and I was ready to experience it, I had modified P.E for most of my school years, but then in high school I didn't need P.E anymore. I went to Ridgeview High School I went for 8 days in my 9th grade year then my mom took me out of school because it was to much for me to go to one side of the campus to the other I was not able to walk that far I would be out of breath when I got there just didn't work out so it didn't work out so I went on home school still going through Ridgeview as my High School and was able to go to football games, plays (etc) I had Mrs. Devitt as my teacher she was an awesome teacher taught me a lot of great things made it were it was easy for me to under stand then she had some personal stuff going on so she had to leave so, I got a new teacher named Mrs. Erin she was okay at first but then she started talking about her kids , divorce , her ex- husband (etc) she was always going off topic and when she did It was never school related she didn't really teach me anything so in my 10th grade year I had Mrs. Heather I stayed with her thought out my 12th grade year Mrs. Heather has  become very close to the family still to this day we invite her to parties events etc. It was very long sometimes stressful but Breanna and I both graduated from Ridgeview High Home Of The Wolfpack I even walked across the stage without my walker that was a dream I always had and It came true on May 27th I even graduated with 10 credits ahead even though school was hard for me to accomplish  I made it through all 12 years of school wouldn't have been possible without my mom & dads help with everything.