I was born with a Bone deformity. In normal knees there is a groove where your kneecaps fit into. In My family the bone where the groove is supposed to be is straight as an arrow. Soooooo When we'd walk the kneecap had no place to sit into and would just flip and flip out of place. So I had 5 knee surgeries, unfortunately back when I had my surgeries in 79 and the early 80's they didnt have the microscopic surgeries yet, so I have nice big nasty scars. I am only 35 but live with horrible arthritis due to all the surgeries. Let me try to explain a bit. In Junior High when they 1st started flipping out, the orthapedic decided to cast me for 2 months on each leg, separetly, to see if that might help hold them in ( Dont ask me why that would work????) But this was new to the Doc and he had never seen it before. Obviously it didnt work, so my 1st

2 surgeries ( now I hope I have this right as it was so long ago I cant remember the medical terms) He tightened the ligiments in my knee to see if that might hold the little suckers in, each surgery being seperate and casted for 6 weeks each time. Now I was allergic to the casts, but he seemed to conveniently forget this every time so I'd have to have them taken off and I would be covered in a rash and be in a splint and bedridden because a splint can bend and of course I was however a teenager and he knew I just may not behave myself :))) I was 15 with the 1st surgery. Now these 2 did not work, so the next 2 were the removal of the patellas. I had them done at age 16 and 2 weeks apart. ( My moms stupid Idea!!!!) I had casts even though I was allergic because of the severity of the surgery for one week then splints, and bedridden. I remember ( and there is a terrible photo of me looking like I was at deaths door!!) I do remember if I did walk in the latter part of recovery it was with a walker and mom right behind me to catch me when I fell and lost my balance. So I got a splint off and then the other off 2 weeks later, what a nightmare! I have never ever experienced that type of pain in my life, not even when I had a Brain tumor removed this year and had a craniotomy done!!!

Ok so then came years and years of physical therapy and learn how to walk all over again. I had a Menigeoma Brain Tumor removed in Feb. 1999 and I suffer horrible right temple headaches daily. I have middle and lower back problems. I also have a rare disease called Arnold Chiari Malformation. http://www.pressenter.com/~chip/chiari.htm Learn more about that at the previous website. My Husband has a Auto-Immune disease called Behcets Disease. https://www.angelfire.com/ma/Behcetbook/info.html

I have 3 children, Twins that will be 12 Nov. 30th and a 13 year old son. One of my twins has Bi-polar mood swings/schizo-affective disorder and Ataxia, so as You can see I know quite a bit about Illness.

Dec 02,1999