What was it like at age 5, having a rare bone disorder?
The negative impacts that have shaped me into who I am today.
I was five years old when I jumped off of a toy box and broke my femur. I remember in the air doing a twist of 360 degrees and landing on my back, unable to get up. My friend was with me at the time and I told her to get my mom. A few minutes later, when I had fallen, my mom descended the stairs into the basement. Once she got downstairs, she said, “Come here, Portia, I’m going to make you feel better.” I told her that I couldn’t get up. She stood over me, whipped away my clothes, and my femur was at a right angle. I was in shock, my eyes were getting blurred. I was going into shock, my eyes were getting blurry. The ambulance arrived and one of the staff asked, “Can you wiggle your toes?” I could, in fact, wiggle my feet. The staff wanted me to be on the stretcher, but I couldn’t be picked up unless they wanted me to be in a lot of pain. I was laying on a large red carpet, and they ended up carrying the rug all the way to the ambulance and putting me on the stretcher.We finally made it to the hospital, I was still on a stretcher that I remember in the hallways we were going through very small bumps. I called the lines. And there’s so much pain in those lines, and I’ve been screaming, “the line, the lines.” In my life, I’ve never felt so much pain.