My Birth Defect Changed Me: From Innocent to Misfit and Victim to Hero
A year of testing, surgery, embarrassment, and pain led to being more than a survivor
My mom, dad, and I were all in a patient waiting room in Minneapolis. A small room in an area of the children’s hospital. I was cold, wearing nothing but a thin, paper hospital gown.
It was the late 80s and I had turned 15 the day before. Half my head was shaved and I wore my hair ratted out and hanging over one eye. My earrings had been removed and no eyeliner traced my eyes, but my fingernails were still black.
A doctor came into the room. He was wearing a white smock, had a thick, black mustache, and spoke with a slight Latino accent. He was one of the two doctors they had flown in to do the surgery to remove my birth defect.
I had spent the entire last year being tested to find out what was wrong with my kidneys. There was no indication anything was wrong other than what doctors said. I suffered no pain and felt no symptoms, but I was told I had a major health issue that needed to be resolved.
A routine physical a full year before had set everything in motion, and now they believed they had found the problem. My operation was going to be filmed because it was so unique.
