My Fairy Tale: The Magic of Modern Medicine

Once upon a time...

This story started in 1959. In St. Louis, Missouri, a little girl was born into a family with a Mom and Dad. By the time she joined the scene, they already had two little girls.

Being number three, joining this growing family certainly added excitement as the other children were ages 2 and 4. The addition of a newborn into the bunch had to have been “exciting,” to say the least.

The young parents took all of it in stride, the challenges and all. The new youngest child presented other problems with a cleft palate and additional nasal bone structure abnormalities. Even in those “ancient” times, modern medicine proved to be astounding. With a simple surgery, her cleft was repaired, and her nose bridge reconstructed, and this fairy tale moved on.

Building a story

As this fairy tale unfolded, this little family continued to grow. Daughter number four daughter completed this circle with her arrival twelve years later. Raising these children was busy, busy, busy. Day-to-day activities revolving around providing for their safe and secure upbringing, complete with constant medical, dental, and vision care as well as sheltering and schooling.

However, their parents proved to be well equipped to handle it all.

The third daughter

The third daughter found herself needing glasses at an early age. She often was found, in the front of the classroom, struggling to see what needed to be seen. Her yearly vision checkup first brought glasses, and then a stronger and stronger prescription as the years went by, resulting in those coke bottle lenses that every young person dreaded to be seen in.

Then as an adult, like a real-life fairy tale, the introduction of contacts magically opened a whole new world. The formerly little girl, now grown-up third daughter, was reborn, free from the weight of those awful lenses.

Another diagnosis

With an ill-fated twist, a new change presented itself, and our heroine was diagnosed again. This time it was cataracts. After the depressing news of these cataracts came and went, there was the exhilarating experience of cataract surgery.

No glasses! Well, reader-cheaters but no glasses for most of the time for the first time in 40 years. This was truly a “Cinderella” moment.

Another twist

This fairy tale has had some dastardly plot turns, and true to fashion, another came to light. The third daughter being diagnosed with myopic degeneration was truly the icing on the cake of her life.

These near-sighted eyes of hers had been up to no good. By their) oblong stretching and growing, her problems grew and grew, creating annoying waves of obscurity and smudgy waves of blockage. Her vision had certainly taken a turn for the worse.

Modern medicine

If you haven’t guessed by now, the little girl in the story was me. I have said all my life: “Thank God for modern medicine.” From the beginning of my story, this medical world has had my back. From the early days of cleft repair, plastic surgery, and Cesarian sections to total knee(s) replacements, hearing aids, and now injections to help stave off this continuous threat to my vision.

I like to think of this as my own personal fairy tale. Full of struggles and triumphs, ups and downs over all these years. Through it all, I have found my own path, sometimes kicking and screaming. But now, I can finally read my tale on my own, and I’m going to do my best to read it to the end.