Were we all "sick children" growing up?

I was healthy as an ox growing up... Didn't even have to have my tonsils out.

But I am one of the rare ones that got chicken pox twice!

Not only did I get it twice but the first time it was the day of my 8th birthday party sleepover so it was cancelled and the second time was when I was 13 and visiting my mom in California and had to be quarantined to the house. LoL

I always had some pain when I was younger. Always had "growing pains"(which felt very similar to some of what I feel now). Shoulder pain/leg pain/ankle pain/back pain...felt painful to stand or sit for too long(one reason why I HATED church.) Migraines too.

Didn't find out till this year that I was supposedly born with hips that weren't exactly "right."

Doctor told my mom that everyday she was supposed to squeeze, pull, and "shape" my hips. Not sure if that is common/normal...but when I first started my PT with the orthopedics peeps, they told me my hips were off a quite a few degrees, which may cause issues with my back. Not sure if that is related. But...makes sense to my non-medically-inclined mind.

Also, used to sprain, twist, fracture my ankles ALL the darn time. Right ankle still doesn't feel right(back when I was younger, I walked on it for two weeks with a fully fractured ankle...when my biological(abusive) father finally took me to the doc, they found out how bad it was...was told to stay off of it for two months).

Though...didn't have any other illnesses like Merrida...sounds horrible! :(

Yes and no.

According to my mother, I nearly died several times at age six months of whooping cough.

She thinks that what stunted my growth growing up. When I turned 12, I was only 4' tall and weighed 64 lbs.

Never had chicken pox, but had measles.

I constantly had what were called "growing pains", severe body pains that would bring me to tears, but no one back then went to the doctors for stuff like that. Was told I would grow out of them.

Had constant "sun sickness', as it was called in the 50's, no such real dx of course, but hyper sensitivity to the heat and the sun (which I still have at age 61).

First major issue was my severe attack of pancreatitis at age 28, and my first major open operation.

The rest is history since then, was 4 serious cancer battles, including my current advanced prostate cancer.

David

Me, too, Whitebeard, on the DNA testing. part of me wants to know, and part of me doesn't.

Purgatory, I never had the chicken pox either, which was weird all three of my brother we're bed ridden with it, but as far as I can tell I was never sick with it.
Whitebeard, as far as genetic testing I'm so so about it, because Cystic Fibrosis is on my Fathers side...all 3 of my aunts children had this aweful disease, both parents need to carry this gene for children to get this disease that needs a cure soon!

My Mother refuses to get into my family history with me. I have asked her repeatedly, especially now that all these things are coming up needing surgeries, and she would tell me my history doesn't matter, just deal with whatever problems present themselves. Not everyone knows their history, such as if one's adopted. I am not. So I go based on memory.

And when my back became unmanageable, I was told by a few orthos and neuros that based on what they saw, some of my situations were congenital. ONLY then, when I told my Mother more than one doctor mentioned this could be related to family history, only then did she ask ME questions and write down the names of diseases I had.

As the eldest of 14 kids, she's the healthiest. Her siblings all have either severe mental disabilities and/or physical ones. She is the only one never to have undergone any major surgery. I only found out about a few health scares because her then-husband told me. She said she didn't tell me because it wouldn't make any difference.

She always got me prompt medical attention, so nothing was neglected as I was growing up, in terms of my physical health. But I'm just so surprised at how my body manifested such an array of diseases from such a young age.

I'm also photo-sensitive but I believe that is because after almost 2 decades of treating me for "psoriasis" usually with coal tar compounds, overnight bagging of my hands and feet and wrapping my knees and elbows...I went to Boston, had multiple biopsies which while seemingly inconclusive, the doctor Dx as PRP, and I began PUVA therapy and was put on multiple drugs to increase my sensitivity to UVA light, plus methotrexate. I would drive into Boston 3 x week for my PUVA therapy, with my dark glasses on, even indoors...but good luck getting a 20-something to totally stay OUT of the sun?

Yeah well, now my skin, while clear (and not from the PUVA) is so damaged, especially my face (which was the only area of my whole body that, at that time, had "normal, unaffected skin.")

I'm accused of living in a bat cave because other than a bright kitchen and bathroom, I like things DARK. I have very little threshold for sun/heat and immediately my vision pains me, my skin gets bright red and itchy, I sweat and break out.

I've always had ultra thin hair but after my first hip surgery, and first four blood transfusions, my hair began falling out. This included my eyelashes (which were always so long I'd have to trim them) and my eyebrows (of which I had around 12 hairs....total). I was losing hair (only where it showed) in clumps, had lots of blood work, and that's when I discovered for the first time, I was severely anemic. (We checked thyroid, etc.) As a woman, losing so much of your hair that your scalp shows through is embarrassing enough, but coupled with snake-like skin....yeah, what a catch, eh?

Anyhoo, I guess looking at life NOW, I feel mentally overwhelmed by such a history, but work hard to stay in the moment and deal with what's going on now.

That's what got me thinking about the lot of us, if we started off on an already bumpy path, so our journeys were bound to be more challenging straight from the first breath we took.


Merrida

(PS: Thank you for letting me ramble. I haven't shared that much history with many people, it's just too much, and at some point it feels,....like, get on with it,...ya know?)

I had bronchitis a lot growing up...especially during my high school years. I was always underweight and had a lot of headaches that I learned later were ocular migraines. I had chicken pox, no mumps or measles. I've worn glasses since I was 3 years old. I'm 51 years old. No broken bones. So for the most part I had a fairly healthy childhood.

My father died of a massive heart attack when he was 48. My mom is a breast cancer survivor. However, heart disease runs on both sides and various types of cancer on my mothers.

Hi all,

I lurk much more than I post, so please bear with me and I will try not to ramble, LOL!

I do not remember being a sickly child at all. I do remember getting most of the regular childhood diseases. My sickest time was when I got the mumps and my doctor did not get the diagnosis correct until I had seen him several times over several weeks. I ended up being out of school from before Thanksgiving break until after Christmas break because of the mumps. I would be sick one day and fine the next and it would just repeat over and over. That was sometime during grade school.

I remember in junior high and high school that I was very healthy and very active. I was overweight as a child, not really obese but definitely overweight to the point that I was embarrassed by it and teased by my classmates constantly.

I also kept my tonsils and adenoids throughout childhood and did not have problems with strep throat until my thirties. In my thirties, I ended up with strep throat every time my antibiotics ended for close to six months and finally the strep throat was so bad that I was hospitalized for it. I could not hold down any food or liquids even with anti-nausea meds via IV. My throat was so bad that I could not talk and they finally consented to remove them.

All of my DX that are in my signature have all came about since the fall of 2003. From 2003 on, I have been on and off opiate pain meds and high and low dose steroids to control symptoms. I am currently on daily meds of inhaled steroids (2 different ones), prednisone at varying doses, florinef (another type of steroid), and an antibiotic 3 times a week. As a child I never had stitches or a broken bone. Within the past 18 months, I have now broken 3 different bones and I am having problems with avascular necrosis in my hips.

I am the only person on both sides of my family going back at least 3 generations that has ever had any type of cancer. I do know that my family history has heart disease and diabetes on both sides. I do make it a point to get regular check-ups to keep a watch out for problems in these areas in the future.

Trudy