It has been twenty years since I came into the world. My name is Trisha and I am twenty years old and a white-German. I have brown hair and eyes, with a few freckles on my nose and cheeks. Dressing in dresses and is what I like to wear. Pink and purple are my favorite colors. Being loud, loving, inpatient and neat is a part of who I am. It is very important to know where my things can be found. MVRMC in Twin Falls, Idaho is where I entered the world weighing six pounds and four ounces and was about nineteen inches long. Being breech with my feet were at my ears is how I was born. Forty-five minutes later I was diagnosed with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which is brittle bone disease. They found out something was wrong because my feet were at my ears and I would not stop crying when they diagnosed me they found healed and broken bones. They found out I had Osteogenesis Imperfecta by taking x-rays. . There are six different types of this disease. Type one is where a person is pretty much normal. Type two is where a person usually dies at birth because of respiratory problems. Type three is short stature and your bones break very easy. Type four is just slightly less severe than three is. I have type three. The last types I don't know much about. I have had a pretty hard life to this point. I have been sick with pneumonia over thirty times. I got sick so easily because I can’t move enough to fight colds. I am on oxygen at night and when I fracture a bone for different reasons; one reason is my lungs are tightly compacted into my body, which does not allow me to breath deeply enough. I have broken over six hundred bones. IT IS VERY PAINFUL! When I break a bone the only thing they can do is put an ace bandage on it and give me lots of medications. The worse break I ever had was when I was five. My sister and I were on our deck playing and she went inside for milk. I drove in circles around on the deck and I got dizzy and drove off the deck. My wheelchair landed on top of me. This was one of the times that they took me to the hospital on my blue board. I had scratches on my right side of my forehead; I also broke both arms and legs. It was very scary. Eight years ago I started getting I.V. treatments called Pamidronate. This helps with bone mass increasing and decreases my bone pain. It seems to be working because I can sit up on my own, roll around on the floor in my house and can sit up in my chair the whole school day. Before, I could not do any of these. I used to go to the Shriner’s hospital every three months for three days and each treatment lasts four hours a day. I now do it at my local hospital for one day period two hours a day. I know that it is not a cure and I still break very often but I have not had pneumonia for over eight years, although just this October, I got it mildly(2009). I used to get physical therapy to help make me stronger. Now I exercise at home. At home my family treats me like I am just like them. When I go out in public people stare at me like I am a lunatic. I get sick of people treating me like a two-year-old. Most people think that if I am physically disabled that I am also mentally disabled, so they talk to me like I am two or three years old. My life has been fun because I get to do and see many new things. Some of the new things I get to do are go miniature golfing, and site seeing in California. Going to the movies and the mall are some things I love to do with my friends. Also I enjoy playing the computer and talking on the phone. While on the computer I play games on the Internet and on CD ROMs. Chatting and searching the web are also things I like to do on the computer. Even though my life has been very fun, it has also been very hard. I have never let my bones and disability let me down. I try to make the best of it and do as much as my bones can handle. I try to think funny thoughts when I am in pain. I am not my disability, rather it is a part of who I am, and therefore I have to deal with it. I enjoy life and things that life has to offer. I am very glad to be who I am and what I am, a human! I don't know where to add this so it will just go right here. I am a member in my church which is the Living Waters Presbyterian Church. I was a varsity bowler at my school. I used to do 4-H until my rabbit died. While I was in high school I helped with all that I could to raise money for functions or what not. Now I am graduated high school and in my third years of college. This has been the best adventure of my life. Four days after my high school graduation I moved to the College of Southern Idaho dorms. So I spent my summer and fall semester in the dorms. This was a fun experience I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I am a social person but not dorm social. After I moved out of the dorms I moved across the street to an apartment with my best friend Anna. After living with her for seven months I ended up moving in with my boyfriend at the time named Michael. Now Michael and I are engaged and planning on getting married in two or so years. We moved to Lewiston Idaho in June so I can finish school. I graduated with my AA in Liberal Arts from CSI. Now I am going to Lewis Clark State College to get my BA in Social Work. Oh and did I mention I drive a Dodge Caravan that I had specially modified so I could drive. That all my life as of now
