Nancy Carr
Hi, I am Nancy. I had a stroke before birth, or so the doctors say. I am now 29 years old and still fighting.
I was three months old when they found out. It was a left side stroke which affected my speech (which isn't too bad now), my eye (which I had an operation to correct when I was 7 years old and it's fine now), my arm and hand are a bit weak. It's my leg and foot which have been affected the most. I had an operation on the leg muscles and foot muscles, but it didn't work - I walk on my toes with a limp. I then fell and fractured my hip when I was 11. I was on traction for 6 weeks and had to learn to walk again. When I was 14 years old I went to a child development centre. They put me in plaster for 8 weeks to stretch the muscles, and put my foot in a splint, they also helped me to get my balance back - they said the splint was for life.
In that time I went to normal primary and secondary school. I also passed my driving test in an automatic. I have worked too, from working in a sewing factory to training for a N.V.Q. in a children's nursery. But I had to give it up, it was too much for me, my doctor tried to tell me but I wouldn't listen, I did it for 18 months. I was very stubborn then, I still am.
And then about 2 years ago I was walking the dog (a black lab) with my mum. I was crossing the road and in the middle I froze. I went to my doctor, he said that my foot had gone back to the way it was, and referred me to a hospital not very near to me as it was the best. They wanted to inject my leg with botox injections but I didn't get there until this year as I fell over the dog on a manhole cover and broke my hip in three places. This was June 2001.
The doctors put a screw in the hip. This year I went for the injections and they found out that the screw was rubbering on the tissue, so I am now waiting to go back in to take it out. I still walk with a stick, I hope that the botox injections work because if they haven't, they are going to operate again.
But I am still smiling!!
Nancy
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