I'm sure that you have read on my blog that I have broken a total of 9 bones in my lifetime starting from age 12. Well 3 of those breaks were just in my femur. Yes I have broken my left femur on 3 completely different accounts. The first time I broke it I had a metal plate put in and was bed stricken for six months. I spent those months flat on my back in a Spica Cast. For those of you who do not know what a "Spica Cast" is, its pretty much a body cast. It went from just beneath my chest all the way down my left leg to my ankle, and down my right leg to my knee, and it had a big metal bar from each leg to connect the two and to prevent any movement. I couldnt sit up, not even to eat, and it made it very diffucult to breathe. Many months after the cast was taken off I spent time with my physical therapist trying to learn how to walk again with crutches.
The second time I broken my femur was actually caused by the stress that the metal plate had put on my femur, and it broke just below the plate. I went in again for surgery although this time they took the plate out. And yet again I was in another spica cast for the same amount of time. Although this time I wasn't at home, I stayed all alone at Shiners Hospital in Sacramento, an amazing hospital for children with rare diseases. and there I received all the medical treatment and help I needed. My parents did drive up to visit me on the weekends, until I couldn't handle being all alone anymore and my mom took a leave of absence from work to stay with me the last few months. Then of course after I healed, I went back to crutches and physical therapy, which took just about as long as it did for my bone to heal and was just as painful.
The third time I broke my femur I was sent to Standford Hospital where they drilled a long metal rod down the center of the marrow canal of my bone. (now as I have mentioned on my blog before, my marrow canal is smaller in diameter due to the dense and extra bone growth and lack of osteoclasts eating away the old bone) so it was much more difficult and they had to use a thinner rod than they wanted cause my marrow canal is so small. But because of this rod I did not need another terrible spica cast! They wanted to send me home for complete bed rest and no movement for the same amount of time as before, but this time around the pain was so much more severe that they kept me at the hospital longer for the proper attention and medication. And i think you can pretty much figure out the rest, I was sent home eventually to be completely bed stricken. and then months later I went back to physical therapy.
Now I guess you might be wondering why I am posting all of this today? I guess it was just on my heart...Sometimes my left leg gives me a lot of problems and hurts for no reason at all. And today is one of those days. Its pretty painful and its causing me to limp pretty bad cause of the pain. It helps to get it all out and be able to share it with someone, or no one, I don't know if anyone will read this, I don't even mind if no one really cares. I just wrote this to make me feel better, and to give hope to someone out there that might be like me who will read this, and they will know that there is someone out there that knows what they are going through. =)
This is just one of the many reasons that I must rely on God for my complete and total strength day by day. I truly believe that I wouldn't be as physically able to walk like I can If I didn't have God in my life. He is my strength, he is my total dependence. I know all of this doesn't just happen for no reason at all. There is a reason I have this disease, there is a reason that I go through all of the physical ailments and trials that I do. I may not know all of the reasons, it may be emotionally shattering and I may get discouraged at times, but I do know that it is so God can use to me to help others. So be encouraged if you are like me, whether you have Osteopetrosis or any other physical problems or disease. God is there for you, and He wants to use you. He knows everything about you, He made you. and He is allowing it for a reason. You may not know what the reason is. But give God the glory for everything that He does for you. You can be an encouragement to someone else who has what you have. Just know that there is a reason for everything, and that God is in control.
*The picture above is not a picture of my femur, but its basically the same thing that happened to me except my breaks were always a little higher*
