Happy Rare Disease Day

I feel like celebrating! It's Rare Disease Day and it's a day I'm actually really excited about. I'm excited because it's a day that raises awareness for all rare diseases and is happens I do have a rare disease called hydrocephalus. Quick science lesson: everyone has fluid that cushions your brain and spinal cord, sometimes in babies like me or in people who have a traumatic brain injury, the fluid enters the brain (which is what gives hydrocephalus its name- literally translated it means water on/in the brain) and makes the brain expand. Never fear, there is treatment for it, a tube with a valve on one end is put into the brain has been successful in getting (and keeping) the fluid out. Best of all, my brain has been kept fluid-free by such a tube. Fun fact: Roald Dahl, (the man who wrote kids books like Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach) had a son who had this disorder  and so he helped make a shunt called the "Wade -Dahl-Till valve shunt" and it helped his son and I suspect many other people get well. So not only was Road Dahl an awesome author, he helped save lives!

Anyway, all that aside I'd like to celebrate Rare Disease Day because it brings more awareness and maybe even cures to illnesses. Although I like holidays and am choosing to celebrate this one, it is one holiday I hope that one day we won't need anymore. I hope I'll see the day when there aren't many diseases left to deal with. As it stands, I'm using this day to put the "ease" back in disease! I figure that if I can find some good things about having a rare condition then at least to me it's easier to have. I think the biggest thing I've learned from having hydrocephalus is that it's helped me to have a lot of faith in people. My family and friends have always supported me through everything and that was something I've always known that I can count on. I'm really grateful to all of them as they've done so much for me in helping to make having a medical condition seem like a walk in the park! (To read more about Rare Disease Day click here.