First up we have Haley (who happens to be my little sister and the youngest of four siblings). I didn't just chose Haley because she is related to me, I chose her because when she answered the question "what motivates you?" she wrote about something that she barely ever talks about even to her own sister. Let me tell you a little of what I know about Hales before I turn it over to her: She never complains, she is always smiling, and although (as you will soon read) she has been told over and over again of her physical limitations I have never heard her say "I can't". I know there were a lot of "experts" telling her what she couldn't or wouldn't ever do. With a smile on her face and a spark in her electric blue eyes Hales went on to prove them all wrong. Thanks Hales for letting me share this, I hope you know how proud I am of you. Okay, enough of my babbling... here's Haley.....
Fashlete of the Month: November 2010
Name: Haley Sztykiel
Age: 23
Graduate Student, University of Michigan School of Social Work
Haley's response to the question: What Motivates You?
Before I tell you the quote that motives me, let me do a little explaining. The day I was born, the doctors told my parents “You have a beautiful (I may have added that) baby girl, but you might want to get those legs checked out.” And that is what I have been doing for the last 23 years, getting my legs “checked out.” If you were to see me, it would be obvious that I have a different walking gait then what is considered normal. To this day, doctors have never been able to understand why I walk differently. But, there has always been this underlying idea that something is wrong. Everything from clubfeet, scoliosis, and so many other medical jargon words have been tossed out and ruled out. For most of my life, doctors settled on the name “unknown neuromuscular disorder.” In other words, something was wrong with the nerve firings, and muscles were underdeveloped.
Although doctors didn’t know what was wrong, they always had a plan on how to “fix” my legs. And very few of their ideas involved anything with in my control. I have had surgery to shorten a tendon, to remove a growth plate, and to realign my hip. For a period of time growing up, I slept with electrical stimulation pads on my legs, hoping to spark nerve firings. All of this I am sure beneficial, but nothing changed the way I walked. And throughout this time, I continued to defy this “medical mystery” by pushing the limits of what a doctor told me. “She’ll never walk,” they told my parents. Obviously, not true. “You won’t be strong enough to drive,” doctors told me as I neared my 16th birthday. But after completing all 50-practice hours of my driver’s education training, I got my license. At 16. I swam competitively starting at 7 and into college, played water polo for a few years, and went to horseback riding camp every summer for 7 years. I never let “unknown neuromuscular disorder” stop me.
Last year, I moved to Ann Arbor and started graduate school at the University of Michigan. With such a great hospital so close, and it being so long since I had seen a doctor, my parents and I decided to make an appointment with a top neurologist. Like many before him, the doctor had no quick answers. So, he ran a bunch of tests to see the actual speed at which the neurons in my legs fire. Then, “listened” to my muscles, using a needle at different points in my leg. The results were something I had never heard before. Everything was normal. There was nothing wrong with my nerves; they fired at exactly the right speed. And if he were to test my parents, because of my age, I would look better. He couldn’t explain why I walk differently, but he was sure that everything was working the right way. And again, like all doctors, he had an idea for how to make me stronger. But this time, I was in control. His prescription: Exercise.
So what’s my quote that gets me going?
“Everything you need is already inside.”
No comments:
Post a Comment