September 28, 2025 • 41 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well, welcome to another episode of Delay but not Denied
the podcast. On tonight, me and my guest, Miss Diddy,
will be talking about hydrocephalus. This is Hydrocephalus Awareness Month.
But before we begin, we want to go to the
(00:52):
Lord in prayer, Heavenly Father, we come to you right
now asking you to be in the midst of the conversation,
asking you to reach the peaceeople that need to hear it,
reach their ears and their hearts by the God, that
they will receive what it is that you need them
to receive from this message tonight. And it's in your
Son Jesus name. I pray Amen, so Bed, How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
How beautiful? How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I'm great? I am great. I am great A.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Long time you ain't no longer? Yes, have a feet.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, you you are my host. You are the co hosts.
But I wanted to give a definition of what hydrocephilis is,
and it's a condition where there's an excessive acclamation of
(01:50):
severals final fluid in the brain's ventricles. This build up
fluid can cause increased pressure on the brain, leading to
various symptoms and complications. Hydrocephalus can be caused by several
factors which include blockage of CSF flow. This can occur
(02:15):
during due to tumors, infections, head injuries, or congenital malformations,
overproduction of c SF, and IT says, although rare, some
conditions can lead to increased production of c SF impaired
(02:36):
absorption of c SF the body is UH. The body's
ability to absorb c SF can be UH impaired in
certain conditions such as meningitis or a certain type of
hemorrhage can take place, and the symptoms the symptoms of
(02:59):
high can vary dependent on the severity and location of
the blockage. Common symptoms include headache, nausea, and vomiting, confusion,
congenitive problems, cognitive problems, my bad seizures, irritability, sleep disturbances,
(03:21):
enlargement of the head, especially in children, difficulty walking or
coordinating movements, loss of bladder control, and vision problems. Hydrocephalus
is typically diagnosed through a physical exam, medical history, and
brain imaging tests such as an MRI or CT scan.
(03:45):
These tests can reveal the presence of enlarged ventricles and
identify the underlying cause of the fluid build up.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So that's a lotting and the treatment.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
The treatment for hydrocephalists usually involved surgery to place a shunt.
A shunt is a thin tube that drains the excess
CSF from the ventricles into another part of the body,
such as the abdomen or pereneal cavity. In some cases,
(04:25):
medication can be used to reduce CSF production or improve
its absorption. So I was an adult when I learned
that I had hydrocephalist, been having it all my life,
didn't know it till I became an adult, never had
(04:49):
to have any revisions.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh, God, blessed, But it's not.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
It's not a blessing because I have done without the
correct type of care for so many years to the
point where they feel like, yeah, they feel like if
they try to do surgery, abridge and bleed.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, because the mine is from the top of my
head to my abomm but it doesn't go my heart.
See where they have your position. That's not fake. Who
would do that? Because normally the ones from the top
all the way down to your abnue and then it
goes like around your heart. It doesn't go in and through.
(05:38):
So I'm like, who does that?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Mine is in a in a.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Adventureful yeah, and that's my safe. So yeah, they did
serve it for you Gods love. Yeah, yeah, we're just
gonna pray that your missing.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I need forty six years.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I'm gonna riding this out.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
So so yeah, I wanted to talk to you about
hydrocephalis and how it affects your life.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Who hydryplus in my life? Well, of course some may know,
some may not know, because I think I was going
after the last surgery. But I just celebrated a year
of the last chunk revision I had on July eighteenth,
and I was thinking about that the other day. I
was like, how do we remember just that particular date?
(06:28):
Why do I remember that day like it's a freaking anniversary.
But it is. But I probably celebrated the maybe the
fifth or six one I've had. I've had for many
now that it's like you don't really know how many
and you can't keep up with how many. But I
love the fact that you read off the symptoms and
you read off the description, because the interesting part is
(06:51):
my symptom used to be straight borderline of what you read.
I was just like that this time around, God said, no,
I need you to do something else. I had no
idea what was happening. I had no idea what was
going what was the reason for it until after the fact.
But the reason why my stunt needed to be revised
(07:14):
is because my blood pressure was hot. They literally thought
I was having every time I took my blood pressure.
Usually when I took my bus pressure, I just took
my hand up and then it goes back down. This
time it would not even go back down. It was
just that how my body was saying, no, lady, something's
wrong with you. And I had I got sicked. I
got to my first place. My cousin helped me get
(07:35):
in my first place, and then I got sicked. So
I thought those fool boys going maybe the flu or something.
But I said, no, this this, this, this Garland ain't
where it's hat. So I called her. She sawed the ambulance.
She knew I had a shunk, so she let them
know she got a shunt. Y'all need to come get
her a sack. And when they got me, they immediately
did all the X rays and trying to make sure
(07:56):
that you know what's going on. Da da da da da.
And it turned out the er doctor still not looking
at it correctly. Because no. He says, oh, well, your
sun is King. No, I know symptoms for King. That
wasn't King. I said, but okay, it's whatever because I
already knew by then I was gonna go see my
(08:17):
nerves curtain that I already see anyway, So I was
like whatever, So I stayed overnight just to make sure
I could, you know, they want to make sure I
could sleep or whatever. Stayed overnight. My cousin came back
and got me and we we went back home. So
the next Monday, I was like scheduling a stat to
see my neurosurgeon. And of course I have to schedule
ahead of time because you got a schedule transportation, et cetera,
(08:37):
et cetera. But my cousin took me this time so
I could schedule that week. And so I went to
see him. Knowing me since I was fifteen, know my
adopted mom. You know what I'm saying. He knew my
mama didn't play about my health right, so he immediately
when he came in the door, was like, DDE, what
you doing here? I said, where doctor Ward? I think
(08:59):
there's something wrong with this up now. The doctor said, yeah,
that it's King. I said, but I know better than that.
So of course they do the standard check your eyes,
check your da da da, And he checked right up
in here and it had been at the hospitals were connected.
It was able to see the X ray. So he
looked it up and he sat there for a minute
and he said, it's broke. I said, it's what he said,
(09:24):
it's broke. But can you do that? Yeah, he said yeah,
because he said one was the last one he had
done before this, And I said, probably ninety three ninety four,
So I'm warning that arena. Maybe ninety four ninety five,
I'm thinking because it's been so long. And he said, yeah,
(09:45):
it's broke. He said, they get they get wearing tet
and they break. If you don't, if you don't have
to have any revised, it's great. So the shunt actually
broke from the just part of my net. If you try,
if you get a draw cutting in half, that's exactly
what it looked like. Oh wow, it looked like it
(10:05):
was a straw cutting hands. So he was like, most
people can be alright with it for a few years.
Da da da da before they get real sick. He said,
for you now, we're gonna we can just fix eight pack.
I was like, okay, well, I remember next week I
was in the emergency room, I mean in the oor,
getting ready to go in, getting ready to have the
(10:28):
procedures done. And he was just like he did. He
didn't do the pacifure because he's older now, so he's
tasically just an advisor. But he made sure that I
had the best playo supposed to have, and I made
sure I had the best layout spot to have, and
God made sure I had the best kayout spot to have,
because I promise you. When I met that surgeon, I
looked right and in his face and I said, now
(10:48):
I know you ain't doctor Ward. I know you're not,
but I'm gonna need you the channel everything that man
talks to you into you, because I'm not playing with you.
I don't play about my head. I don't say about
my when it comes to side a buffler. You you
you you gotta be real good for me to be one.
You cut me in those areas because that's my stuff.
We played it. So he's just like no, he was like,
(11:11):
you laught picking on some sort to try to be serious.
I'm like, no, you're gonna laught today because so we
ain't gonna be that serious. We're gonna see it. We're
gonna be that serious.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
So he started laughing and he was like, this chick
right here, I'm just saying sad. So he was actually
he was actually really really great, and he was like
when he did it. After he did, He's like, I'm
trying to tout too much in here, I said, don't care,
it's already short. I deliberately wear my head short because
I know the shunts up when it feels like it
wants to act up. And if I had a good
hairstyle and I gotta cut it, I'm gonna be mad, right, Yeah,
(11:42):
I make so my head is deliberately sure. So even
even now, this is this is my hat. If I
like to call it, you don't like to say it
like that, but this is my hat. I got a
lot of different hats because why because I like to
change a little bit, but I like to look cute.
So so he cut my head, had it, But I
had surgery that that night, was in the in my
(12:03):
hospital in at midnight, at midnight, yeah, at midnight, And
I had to stay in the hospital for like two days.
The medicare servants. They don't act like they want to
teach you, and no longer if you can halfway move around,
which I was fine because I was like, okay, it's
just whatever. I had just got to my own apartment,
so I hadn't even enjoyed my own place to have
(12:23):
to go back into a hospital. Right, Oh, I was good, Well, okay,
I'm go home. Okay. God. So basically a lot of
the care that I had to do after for recovery
was done at home. They had a home help and
it was come in like for just three times a week.
They had a physical therapist come in with me, you know,
to see me. But that was about it. But but
(12:45):
but that was a blessing because I found out I
can actually possibly walk again. You will and you will
and you.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Will walk. Yeah. I was gonna ask you with prior revisions,
did you have like any symptoms that let you know
you needed to have your shirt revised?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Mm hmm. Most majority of my symptoms have That's why
I knew this one was different because the majority of
my symptoms usually are the vomiting, the mind grain headache.
I mean, like nothing you can take can help any
of that. Right, you were in a few position crime
because you can't get rid of this blessing headache. Basically,
(13:37):
those were the majority of my symptoms. I might have
had temperatures when I was younger. I didn't know my mom,
you know, took care of that, but she was a nurse.
But I believe the majority of what I remember were
really bad headaches and growing up. Yeah. Yeah, And I
only think I did at this at this conjunction, was vomited.
It was like my body said, Okay, we where you
(13:59):
need to be now. We're gonna get you to the
hospit right, m And the thing about it that was
crazy is that the doctor said that I had lived
in Florida with my ex husband for like four years
and the doctors was like, your sun was broken Florida.
(14:21):
I said, how what nobody told me that? We said
it was broke.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
We saw it.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Then we saw the last X rays they do. They
had to do X rays before I had my first
conference hom the surgery because they have to make sure
that the sun can stand whatever long procedure they have
to do. If it's a long procedure, they did us.
They did us, They did something. I mean, they did
us X ray and saw that it was broken. Nobody
said one word, not one single word. Nobody said, go
(14:50):
see a nerd surgeon, Go follow up with somebody.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Really well, do you know if you're still work or not?
Because for me, I've gone to different neurologists and I've
had them to tell me. I've had one to tell
me that it's working and it's working properly. I've had
one to say, oh, it's it's just there. It served
its purpose at you know, when you were a child.
(15:17):
So the only time we have a conversation about it
is when I asked about removing it, and they tell
me because I've had it in there since birth and
never had a revision or anything like that, they don't
want to mess with it because they don't want me
to hemorrhage and bleed. Yeah, but trying to get some
(15:42):
type of relief, it's always been hard for me, Like
mine is the same way. So I mean, as far
as that goes, it's behind I hit behind my ear
and it comes down and it drains into the ventricle
my heart. But it's it's been a journey. It's been
(16:05):
a journey. There's nights I can't sleep, there's days where
I have been up for three and four days at
a time without even taking a nap, because it's like
my body says, okay, we we're not tired. Well I can't.
(16:26):
You know, doctors have tried to prescribe medicines to help
me sleep or whatever, but nothing has been strong enough
to break the hydrocephalis is doing to me. You know,
does the hydrocephilists bother you when you try to sleep?
Like I can't lay on that side for too long?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
You know what is an interesting thing about that is
that to answer your first question, the doctor did say
that I have a now I mean complete working thing.
They have to put like a.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Like a.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I don't know what to call it, like a maker
pace maker type thing on the top of your head
kind of control what fluid goes, you know, down or whatever. Right,
and that that particular piece that I had respond So
the only thing that needed to be repaired was the twoth.
(17:24):
The tooth, So the only thing that I needed to
repair was they need to put a new tube in,
which I find sometimes very interesting because you you only
cut here and you didn't cut it down to the avenue,
So I'm like, how do you get that all? The
way down there, and I ain't not not cut no
where else but up skates. That's God anyways. No, I
don't usually have too many issues sleeping wise, which set
(17:45):
with the sun, more of my backs and days my
bathroom the one that that the part where because you know,
I had two backers too. So the crazy part is
the area that is the oldest star is with its
the most. But he had to cut me twice, so
I had the normal birth scar at the at the
(18:07):
lower back when you first won right, he had to
go upward the last time because he had to streak
the bone off of my feather cord. So it was
like when I got a whole another star. But yeah,
who wants to be cut any mere? So that's only
that's the only area that I that I have issues
with the sun. Only caused the problem when something's wrong
with it, by the grace of God, because I don't
(18:28):
really I don't remember it's there until it's there. Now,
if I get aheadache, I get nervous because I'm wondering
if this headache is gonna go away. Fight But and
you you can tell which one is with But sometimes
it tends to have its own little mindset and be like, oh, yeah,
we're gonna stay here for a little white life scenario.
(18:48):
And you don't know it until it's until you got it.
So I really don't know it's there until something happens,
by the grace of God, because yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Can turn my head a certain way and I feel it,
like like even with running my fingers across.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I cannot leave it alone.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I have it stick out where I can fit it.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I stick out to but I definitely.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
But and that's how I am. Like, you know, every
time I get some kind of surgery, my hands automatically
go to that location just to fellow around. I guess
to see what's normal and what's not. You were talking
about your deck surgeries. I had one, and that was
(19:40):
the one at birth. It goes across. It was across three.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I had three. The last one I had was my
third because the first one I had the first one
I had a birth. Then I have one when I
was probably I want to say, maybe sixte maybe sixteen,
And because of the way I stood, I stood with
I would walk like this or they were trying to
(20:09):
sit me up. So every time I walked the girls
with you it's a party how y'all doing. So they
was trying to make sure they kind of correct that
as best as they could. So that was the first
one after birth, and then I had one in twenty dates. Man, well,
I just remember. I remember the day, but I'm trying
not to. Twenty eighteen is the year that I had
(20:32):
the last one, and that was because there was my
backbone was pressing on what my tether for it, and
he had to go in and strip the phone down
off of it and then retethered it. And the reason
why I had the symptoms for that is because my
nerves was really bad. I was really hurt. I mean
my whole hits was hurt. In my back. I could
(20:53):
barely move. I could barely do anything anything. And he
said he had me on medication for a while, about
me two years, and he said we're not gonna do
it to be ready to do it, because he knows
I've been cut one too many times and I'm not
honestly betting cut. Someone has to be I'm mean, the
medicine to work, and so I don't have to be cut.
But the work it worked for as long as it
(21:14):
could until I was like, you know, Doc, I'm there
just let's let's just get this go with because I
was tired of keep I was tired of letting my
gallu hit and keep going up. I didn't want to
go to another dose of gallivating because I was like,
I want to do that. I want to get off
of this kill. So I know right now I'm still
on it, but it's because I am actually on a
lower dose than I was. But still I'm like, mm mmm,
(21:36):
I'm gonna need this to go away. So he did
the same guy who guys knows my son being broke,
same man who did my He that's actually I believe
the last Thursday or one of the last thurdy he
actually did, and mine was it My back surgy was
the last one he actually did it. So I'm thankful.
I mean, when you have a good neurosurgeon, you don't
want that ny gonna where. But I had to change
(21:59):
to go to another plant because he doesn't do thirdery
and I'm in the country, and so I have to
go someplace that's close to I can get to. I
was upset. I feel like people family. I was like,
wait a minute, I don't want to go. I don't
want to go. Doctor Royd. I'm like, nah, I knew
his secretary. You know what I'm saying. They were family,
So I'm like, wait a minute, how I'm gonna do this?
(22:20):
So I was upset. But when you have a good
thurd than my body, but this other one you put
me where he's good too, So I'm thankful for that.
But we know the real position, so we good.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
We are a part of a very large community of
people that have hydrocephalus and spina bifida. I have seen
I don't know if you have, but I've seen some
instances where people have been fortunate enough to have their
(22:54):
shunt removed. Me too, mix me just I want this
thing out, but I do understand that it is keeping
me alive, and it's keeping me here because I still
have work.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, that's who were getting to the brain where's at right? Well,
I'm thankful for that for you and.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Me, and I mean just being in the community and
seeing these babies with this in like these third world
countries that don't have access to the doctors that we had,
where their heads are extremely big and stollen, and and
(23:44):
it breaks my heart too because a lot of them
don't make it.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, and it's but I realized this is a this
is a den thing, this is this is not just
a sunk thing. This is a brain surgery. You are
actually going into somebody's heads, touching their brain area and
fixing the fluid or trying to fix the yeah, trying
to fix the food intake. So this is not and
(24:13):
I didn't really I never think. I never thought I
realized that that was that until, like he said, I
got older. I did not realize that I was actually
having brain thurd Like, I never thought that that would
be the case until I looked into it. So more
was like, oh wow, this is real, this is this
is really serious. This really damaged me. And that's why
(24:35):
I'm worried about my bilife brother because I'm like, God
gave me the same symptoms that he currently has now
because I need to make sure that he has what
he needs to have done. And I'm like, okay, you
know what I mean to telling me they need to
fix their son. I'm like, this is telling them to
call me and they need to pick that son asap,
(24:56):
because he's like you, he's had his son that he
can really member all his life. But because of him
not having the sun repaired fast enough, like I did
some of his you know, some of his the comprehensions
and things like that. Still was a kind of slightly off.
(25:17):
So I gotta let him know this ain't nothing to
play with. Let's do this now a fac I'm like, okay, father,
I want to see all of that. You could have
give me the regular symptoms sad and so I knew
what it was. I was said, nine, we're gonna go last,
please take it off for help, and yeah, I was
like okay. And then when I talked to my brother
(25:37):
and he's just having those same answers our stops, I
was like, okay, because just wanted me to do this.
Is this was your plan? So you guys don't play
about me.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Is you know you have a sibling that has the
same thing that we have and uh, I you know,
being born into the family I was born into, I'm
the only one that was born with the disability that
I'm aware of. And it's hard because there's really nobody
(26:10):
to lean on. Family, Yeah, because nobody knows what I'm
dealing with.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
But I can relate to that. Why because I was
adopted and nobody in my family has finals They didn't
adopt another CHILDE was trying to visit. You know, my
mom wanted to be the keeople. That was going to
be too much that she didn't want. She didn't want
my brother. At one point she said she didn't want
us to be separated, but she just couldn't do it.
That's just that was just too much, right. I mean,
you were to say I was able to walk, and
then you have him, and then you know what I'm saying,
(26:38):
you don't know so and he doesn't walk, so that
would have been a lot. I mean, let's let's not
say he probably wouldn't have been able to walk, and
he came to my family because we determined, folks, we're
gonna make you walk. But I mean I did what
you're saying because I don't. I did not I had
I don't ever really remember having a friend with finf
(26:58):
for that to understand and relate what I'm going until
I met you on Facebook and some other people and
was like, oh, it's a community, okay, okay. Because I
felt like you, I was lost. I didn't have nobody
that was understanding.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I felt like I was the only person alive with it,
and I felt like it was punishment because I was like,
these doctors can't even pronounce it correctly, And I'm like,
how you adopted and you can't but and whatever else
we got going on.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Let's not talk about WFB here all day.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
You know that this month is coming to an end,
and this month was a hydro siphilis awareness month. Is
there anything special that you've done that you feel you
wouldn't have been able to do otherwise now because it
(28:02):
or say or just in general in general?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Okay, in general, I am definitely doing something that I
never thought I would do, nor did the doctors think
I would do, because you know, they give you the
death sentions of fining a business and you ain't gonna
be nothing to them in the corner and the suits
and leave them now. It's like Scenarrow. So yeah, I
(28:25):
was sold. I was not gonna be able to walk.
I was not gonna be able to function on my own.
I was not gonna be able to do anything. I'm
living by myself. I'm actually doing online learning online college campus.
I just started being a volunteer to greet people for
new students, and I'm in my third I'm going into
my fourth quarter. Yeah, into my fourth quarter and third quarter.
(28:48):
I got straight as my EPA is four point Oh
won't you do it? Won't do it? Yeah, And that's god,
that's nothing, but guy, because when I tell you, I
didn't see myself doing nobody's college know nothing like that
at getting a degree of closing. Yeah, that's that's nothing.
(29:10):
Doctors has seen that. Sometimes I wish the doctors was
still alive because I'm only not here probably, but yeah,
I wish it was allied. Yeah, no, you don't know,
my god, no, he got the final face up.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
I remember.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
When I was adopted, they had a and remind me
to show it to you. There's a thing in the
paper that they put in the paper, I guess trying
to get somebody to adopt me and stuff like that.
And my grandmother biological, she clipped it out the paper
(29:51):
and saved it, like almost like she knew that they
were gonna find me. The way that they worded things
dealing with the hydrocephalist and the spine of bit for
the and being that I was a baby. I was
eighteen months old when I got adopted. It's crazy like
(30:14):
they had this whole, like half a page of the
newspaper where they had a picture. Yeah, they had a
picture of me, a description of what I was dealing with.
And the one word, the one word that stuck out
(30:34):
to me because of brain surgery, they said that I
was retarded. That was the word that they chose to use.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
That's what they try to say when they're telling the
parents put them on the institutions of we're gonna be flapped.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah, I was supposed to be institutionalized.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
The one thing I can say about my mom is
she wouldn't going for none of that. She went right
ahead and stuck me in in regular education with the
rest of the people.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
And today.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I had no issues with retaining anything except for math.
Math is of the devil. I don't care who who
who like it, who love it or whatever.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
We don't. We're here to tell you right now. Do
not like that.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
It's a common thing, like you can actually google it.
People that have hydrocephalis and struggle with math, And it's
the craziest thing. But and I wouldn't wish it on
anybody because those sleep, those sleepless nights that I endure
(31:59):
a lot. It's just it's hard because I be wanting
to hit somebody up. You awake you awake, you awake,
you up.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
That's why I keep my phone off with you crazy.
I love you, but I'm won't get you up when
I get up, get set. So I'm about to, like
twelve one o'clock you want to play for us, but
if I see get you up to get up. I
(32:27):
love you, though I.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Know I love you too. I was trying to think.
I wanted to ask you, how does living with the
disability affect you? Going to school and doing all of
all of that and having a social life and stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Social life? So life life, This is my supposal life.
You're my supposed to life. Oh my goodness, how does
it effect well? I I can't really say it affects
too much because my adopted mother was no I really
would speaker could have met her and my parents, because
I promise you she was no joke. From the age
(33:10):
of as long as I remember, probably fifty years old,
maybe I can probably go that far. She didn't play,
She did not never. She never treated me like I
was just saying. She would never let my dad do it.
She never no, because she's gonna have to fun on
her own. She's gonna to herself. And so when I
got old enough to learn how to, you know, cook
for myself or cook and help her cook. She was like, yeah,
(33:33):
you better figure it out. If you're gonna stop, you
better know how to do this. But she always spoke
things over my life that I in my mind could
not even fathom. She would speak over marriage, she would
speak over me going to college. He would speak over
me driving. She saw things in me because she said,
there's nothing wrong with me, right, She said, you may
(33:57):
have something physically wrong, and you can't do a lot
of things physically, but there's nothing wrong with you, she said.
And that was this is the one thing she always said.
You could do anything you put your mind. He said,
I found that out at the age of two and
a half three years old, when you told me in
the car with miraculously, I'm gonna walk on me. And
she said she didn't know what to do with that,
(34:18):
because she said, where'd that come from? Obviously God, because
she said, I just busted out saying it at three
years I probably started walking around three years old, my
sister at eighty three almost three years old. Yeah, around three.
So she was like, you were determined, she said, So
I know you determined to do whatever you want. So
(34:41):
living on my own has been a different change of
pace because this is the first time I've ever done that.
I went from being a girlfriend, being a fiance, being
a wife to being separated divorce. So I'm like, oh, father,
this is a heck of a path we're going on.
But it's been answer because why Because I'm able to
(35:02):
now put into action which I was already doing anyway,
but put into actions how to take care of myself.
I mean, I'm not saying I wouldn't like a partners.
I'm not saying I with my department, but I don't
need right, you know what I'm saying, because my mom
taught me everything. I take here of my own stuff.
(35:24):
I handed my bills, I handled whatever I need, grocery delivered,
Thank God to have that now, so is delivered. You
know what I'm saying. I handle my own I set
up my own insurance so I get my fans to
pation so I can go to the doctor. So nobody
has to come and help me. Because why, Because I'm
trying to make sure that I don't have to depend
upon nobody. My mom never wanted that, so depending upon
(35:46):
people is not where of that far. So I don't
want to have to go back and do that when
I need you or I owe you for doing this.
Mama always said, if you don't have to ask, don't,
don't you're gonna owe somebody and you don't need that.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
And everybody that says if you need anything called, they
don't mean it, because the minute you call, you go
straight the voicemail or you've got to hear some type
of excuse or whatever.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah. Yeah, oh god, I do it myself.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
We're about to come to a close. Yeah, And I
just wanted to know if there's anything that you would
like to put out in the atmosphere for maybe a
child that is growing up that has hydrocephalus and in
(36:45):
school and trying to maintain a good grade because you've
been doing you've been doing a dang one things since
you've been in college and this. Yeah. Yeah, So if
there's anything that you want to say before we head
(37:06):
out the floor, is yours?
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Okay? Well, Antonio, thank you for that beautiful message. You see,
we're fine, we're crazy. But as for parents and students,
you know who know they have hide your sisters. I
just say, let's your child be let them, let them,
let him go up and be where they're supposed to be.
(37:31):
Let God do what he's gonna do with them. Pray
over there, pray over the baby, keep them covered because
people don't understand that the doctors don't know everything. Because
I promise you God got the final pay. I wasn't
supposed to do nothing with my life. And when I
tell you, I look back over my life and be like, Father,
(37:55):
what were we doing here? I mean, this lady right here
made me an offer through the Father because listening because
I didn't see none of that happened, and I was like,
oh no, I write what I want to do that,
so don't stop you.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I just feel like everybody has a story to tell,
and being that were born with disabilities and being adopted,
there's so much, you know, we can pull apart and
share with others so that they might be able to urge.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
We're here to encourage people and it sounds bad to say,
but it's not bad to say because we most disabled
people don't want to be that inspiration for you. But
in general, that's what God made us to be in
a way because why because He wants you to see that,
Oh you being lazy by what you're doing. Look at
what they're doing, and they got to fight a hard
(38:53):
and fight to get to what you're trying to do. Right,
so it's like, are you kidding me? You really just
gonna be killing? And that's what Goda saying, y'all gonna
get killing and these people are out here doing it.
So yeah, well, we we're here to do what God
wanted to do. And if that's an inspire.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Absolutely you sure. Later well, I would like to thank
everybody for tuning in tonight to delay but not deny
the podcast. We will be back the second Monday and
fourth Friday of October. October is spin a bit for
(39:38):
their awareness.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Much so we'll be back.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
We will definitely be back and we'll discuss find a
bit for them what that's like and hopefully educate some
people and hopefully, yeah, and educate and inspire because we
want we want the family to be able to understand
that that.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
They can go and do whatever they want, absolutely whatever
they want. Don't look at your child and think that
they have limitations, because they don't. I promise you. My
mama didn't give me none. I got to think like
everybody else, Listen, I got it all. I was a
normal child.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
I definitely was treated normally to a certain degree, I'll say,
because my mama treated me like flying China, like if
you touch me, she's gonna break, and so.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Couldn't.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Yeah, there was a lot of things I couldn't. I
couldn't do because my mom was scared, so he was nervous.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, it's not I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
I know, you know it at all, not even a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
I mean, you had your baby, but you didn't treat
him like that, so you know you let him deep. Yeah,
so I get that. I get yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
So, but again, thank you for co hosting tonight. I
look forward to the fourth Friday of October so that
we can do it again. I want to tell my
my audience thank you for stopping by and checking us out,
seeing what we do. Come back again. The conversation is
(41:25):
always different. So yeah, that's all I got. So thank
y'all for coming out. God bless you tonight.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
HM
Well, welcome to another episode of Delay but not Denied
the podcast. On tonight, me and my guest, Miss Diddy,
will be talking about hydrocephalus. This is Hydrocephalus Awareness Month.
But before we begin, we want to go to the
(00:52):
Lord in prayer, Heavenly Father, we come to you right
now asking you to be in the midst of the conversation,
asking you to reach the peaceeople that need to hear it,
reach their ears and their hearts by the God, that
they will receive what it is that you need them
to receive from this message tonight. And it's in your
Son Jesus name. I pray Amen, so Bed, How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
How beautiful? How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I'm great? I am great. I am great A.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Long time you ain't no longer? Yes, have a feet.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, you you are my host. You are the co hosts.
But I wanted to give a definition of what hydrocephilis is,
and it's a condition where there's an excessive acclamation of
(01:50):
severals final fluid in the brain's ventricles. This build up
fluid can cause increased pressure on the brain, leading to
various symptoms and complications. Hydrocephalus can be caused by several
factors which include blockage of CSF flow. This can occur
(02:15):
during due to tumors, infections, head injuries, or congenital malformations,
overproduction of c SF, and IT says, although rare, some
conditions can lead to increased production of c SF impaired
(02:36):
absorption of c SF the body is UH. The body's
ability to absorb c SF can be UH impaired in
certain conditions such as meningitis or a certain type of
hemorrhage can take place, and the symptoms the symptoms of
(02:59):
high can vary dependent on the severity and location of
the blockage. Common symptoms include headache, nausea, and vomiting, confusion,
congenitive problems, cognitive problems, my bad seizures, irritability, sleep disturbances,
(03:21):
enlargement of the head, especially in children, difficulty walking or
coordinating movements, loss of bladder control, and vision problems. Hydrocephalus
is typically diagnosed through a physical exam, medical history, and
brain imaging tests such as an MRI or CT scan.
(03:45):
These tests can reveal the presence of enlarged ventricles and
identify the underlying cause of the fluid build up.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So that's a lotting and the treatment.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
The treatment for hydrocephalists usually involved surgery to place a shunt.
A shunt is a thin tube that drains the excess
CSF from the ventricles into another part of the body,
such as the abdomen or pereneal cavity. In some cases,
(04:25):
medication can be used to reduce CSF production or improve
its absorption. So I was an adult when I learned
that I had hydrocephalist, been having it all my life,
didn't know it till I became an adult, never had
(04:49):
to have any revisions.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh, God, blessed, But it's not.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
It's not a blessing because I have done without the
correct type of care for so many years to the
point where they feel like, yeah, they feel like if
they try to do surgery, abridge and bleed.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, because the mine is from the top of my
head to my abomm but it doesn't go my heart.
See where they have your position. That's not fake. Who
would do that? Because normally the ones from the top
all the way down to your abnue and then it
goes like around your heart. It doesn't go in and through.
(05:38):
So I'm like, who does that?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Mine is in a in a.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Adventureful yeah, and that's my safe. So yeah, they did
serve it for you Gods love. Yeah, yeah, we're just
gonna pray that your missing.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I need forty six years.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I'm gonna riding this out.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
So so yeah, I wanted to talk to you about
hydrocephalis and how it affects your life.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Who hydryplus in my life? Well, of course some may know,
some may not know, because I think I was going
after the last surgery. But I just celebrated a year
of the last chunk revision I had on July eighteenth,
and I was thinking about that the other day. I
was like, how do we remember just that particular date?
(06:28):
Why do I remember that day like it's a freaking anniversary.
But it is. But I probably celebrated the maybe the
fifth or six one I've had. I've had for many
now that it's like you don't really know how many
and you can't keep up with how many. But I
love the fact that you read off the symptoms and
you read off the description, because the interesting part is
(06:51):
my symptom used to be straight borderline of what you read.
I was just like that this time around, God said, no,
I need you to do something else. I had no
idea what was happening. I had no idea what was
going what was the reason for it until after the fact.
But the reason why my stunt needed to be revised
(07:14):
is because my blood pressure was hot. They literally thought
I was having every time I took my blood pressure.
Usually when I took my bus pressure, I just took
my hand up and then it goes back down. This
time it would not even go back down. It was
just that how my body was saying, no, lady, something's
wrong with you. And I had I got sicked. I
got to my first place. My cousin helped me get
(07:35):
in my first place, and then I got sicked. So
I thought those fool boys going maybe the flu or something.
But I said, no, this this, this, this Garland ain't
where it's hat. So I called her. She sawed the ambulance.
She knew I had a shunk, so she let them
know she got a shunt. Y'all need to come get
her a sack. And when they got me, they immediately
did all the X rays and trying to make sure
(07:56):
that you know what's going on. Da da da da da.
And it turned out the er doctor still not looking
at it correctly. Because no. He says, oh, well, your
sun is King. No, I know symptoms for King. That
wasn't King. I said, but okay, it's whatever because I
already knew by then I was gonna go see my
(08:17):
nerves curtain that I already see anyway, So I was
like whatever, So I stayed overnight just to make sure
I could, you know, they want to make sure I
could sleep or whatever. Stayed overnight. My cousin came back
and got me and we we went back home. So
the next Monday, I was like scheduling a stat to
see my neurosurgeon. And of course I have to schedule
ahead of time because you got a schedule transportation, et cetera,
(08:37):
et cetera. But my cousin took me this time so
I could schedule that week. And so I went to
see him. Knowing me since I was fifteen, know my
adopted mom. You know what I'm saying. He knew my
mama didn't play about my health right, so he immediately
when he came in the door, was like, DDE, what
you doing here? I said, where doctor Ward? I think
(08:59):
there's something wrong with this up now. The doctor said, yeah,
that it's King. I said, but I know better than that.
So of course they do the standard check your eyes,
check your da da da, And he checked right up
in here and it had been at the hospitals were connected.
It was able to see the X ray. So he
looked it up and he sat there for a minute
and he said, it's broke. I said, it's what he said,
(09:24):
it's broke. But can you do that? Yeah, he said yeah,
because he said one was the last one he had
done before this, And I said, probably ninety three ninety four,
So I'm warning that arena. Maybe ninety four ninety five,
I'm thinking because it's been so long. And he said, yeah,
(09:45):
it's broke. He said, they get they get wearing tet
and they break. If you don't, if you don't have
to have any revised, it's great. So the shunt actually
broke from the just part of my net. If you try,
if you get a draw cutting in half, that's exactly
what it looked like. Oh wow, it looked like it
(10:05):
was a straw cutting hands. So he was like, most
people can be alright with it for a few years.
Da da da da before they get real sick. He said,
for you now, we're gonna we can just fix eight pack.
I was like, okay, well, I remember next week I
was in the emergency room, I mean in the oor,
getting ready to go in, getting ready to have the
(10:28):
procedures done. And he was just like he did. He
didn't do the pacifure because he's older now, so he's
tasically just an advisor. But he made sure that I
had the best playo supposed to have, and I made
sure I had the best layout spot to have, and
God made sure I had the best kayout spot to have,
because I promise you. When I met that surgeon, I
looked right and in his face and I said, now
(10:48):
I know you ain't doctor Ward. I know you're not,
but I'm gonna need you the channel everything that man
talks to you into you, because I'm not playing with you.
I don't play about my head. I don't say about
my when it comes to side a buffler. You you
you you gotta be real good for me to be one.
You cut me in those areas because that's my stuff.
We played it. So he's just like no, he was like,
(11:11):
you laught picking on some sort to try to be serious.
I'm like, no, you're gonna laught today because so we
ain't gonna be that serious. We're gonna see it. We're
gonna be that serious.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
So he started laughing and he was like, this chick
right here, I'm just saying sad. So he was actually
he was actually really really great, and he was like
when he did it. After he did, He's like, I'm
trying to tout too much in here, I said, don't care,
it's already short. I deliberately wear my head short because
I know the shunts up when it feels like it
wants to act up. And if I had a good
hairstyle and I gotta cut it, I'm gonna be mad, right, Yeah,
(11:42):
I make so my head is deliberately sure. So even
even now, this is this is my hat. If I
like to call it, you don't like to say it
like that, but this is my hat. I got a
lot of different hats because why because I like to
change a little bit, but I like to look cute.
So so he cut my head, had it, But I
had surgery that that night, was in the in my
(12:03):
hospital in at midnight, at midnight, yeah, at midnight, And
I had to stay in the hospital for like two days.
The medicare servants. They don't act like they want to
teach you, and no longer if you can halfway move around,
which I was fine because I was like, okay, it's
just whatever. I had just got to my own apartment,
so I hadn't even enjoyed my own place to have
(12:23):
to go back into a hospital. Right, Oh, I was good, Well, okay,
I'm go home. Okay. God. So basically a lot of
the care that I had to do after for recovery
was done at home. They had a home help and
it was come in like for just three times a week.
They had a physical therapist come in with me, you know,
to see me. But that was about it. But but
(12:45):
but that was a blessing because I found out I
can actually possibly walk again. You will and you will
and you.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Will walk. Yeah. I was gonna ask you with prior revisions,
did you have like any symptoms that let you know
you needed to have your shirt revised?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Mm hmm. Most majority of my symptoms have That's why
I knew this one was different because the majority of
my symptoms usually are the vomiting, the mind grain headache.
I mean, like nothing you can take can help any
of that. Right, you were in a few position crime
because you can't get rid of this blessing headache. Basically,
(13:37):
those were the majority of my symptoms. I might have
had temperatures when I was younger. I didn't know my mom,
you know, took care of that, but she was a nurse.
But I believe the majority of what I remember were
really bad headaches and growing up. Yeah. Yeah, And I
only think I did at this at this conjunction, was vomited.
It was like my body said, Okay, we where you
(13:59):
need to be now. We're gonna get you to the
hospit right, m And the thing about it that was
crazy is that the doctor said that I had lived
in Florida with my ex husband for like four years
and the doctors was like, your sun was broken Florida.
(14:21):
I said, how what nobody told me that? We said
it was broke.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
We saw it.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Then we saw the last X rays they do. They
had to do X rays before I had my first
conference hom the surgery because they have to make sure
that the sun can stand whatever long procedure they have
to do. If it's a long procedure, they did us.
They did us, They did something. I mean, they did
us X ray and saw that it was broken. Nobody
said one word, not one single word. Nobody said, go
(14:50):
see a nerd surgeon, Go follow up with somebody.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Really well, do you know if you're still work or not?
Because for me, I've gone to different neurologists and I've
had them to tell me. I've had one to tell
me that it's working and it's working properly. I've had
one to say, oh, it's it's just there. It served
its purpose at you know, when you were a child.
(15:17):
So the only time we have a conversation about it
is when I asked about removing it, and they tell
me because I've had it in there since birth and
never had a revision or anything like that, they don't
want to mess with it because they don't want me
to hemorrhage and bleed. Yeah, but trying to get some
(15:42):
type of relief, it's always been hard for me, Like
mine is the same way. So I mean, as far
as that goes, it's behind I hit behind my ear
and it comes down and it drains into the ventricle
my heart. But it's it's been a journey. It's been
(16:05):
a journey. There's nights I can't sleep, there's days where
I have been up for three and four days at
a time without even taking a nap, because it's like
my body says, okay, we we're not tired. Well I can't.
(16:26):
You know, doctors have tried to prescribe medicines to help
me sleep or whatever, but nothing has been strong enough
to break the hydrocephalis is doing to me. You know,
does the hydrocephilists bother you when you try to sleep?
Like I can't lay on that side for too long?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
You know what is an interesting thing about that is
that to answer your first question, the doctor did say
that I have a now I mean complete working thing.
They have to put like a.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Like a.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I don't know what to call it, like a maker
pace maker type thing on the top of your head
kind of control what fluid goes, you know, down or whatever. Right,
and that that particular piece that I had respond So
the only thing that needed to be repaired was the twoth.
(17:24):
The tooth, So the only thing that I needed to
repair was they need to put a new tube in,
which I find sometimes very interesting because you you only
cut here and you didn't cut it down to the avenue,
So I'm like, how do you get that all? The
way down there, and I ain't not not cut no
where else but up skates. That's God anyways. No, I
don't usually have too many issues sleeping wise, which set
(17:45):
with the sun, more of my backs and days my
bathroom the one that that the part where because you know,
I had two backers too. So the crazy part is
the area that is the oldest star is with its
the most. But he had to cut me twice, so
I had the normal birth scar at the at the
(18:07):
lower back when you first won right, he had to
go upward the last time because he had to streak
the bone off of my feather cord. So it was
like when I got a whole another star. But yeah,
who wants to be cut any mere? So that's only
that's the only area that I that I have issues
with the sun. Only caused the problem when something's wrong
with it, by the grace of God, because I don't
(18:28):
really I don't remember it's there until it's there. Now,
if I get aheadache, I get nervous because I'm wondering
if this headache is gonna go away. Fight But and
you you can tell which one is with But sometimes
it tends to have its own little mindset and be like, oh, yeah,
we're gonna stay here for a little white life scenario.
(18:48):
And you don't know it until it's until you got it.
So I really don't know it's there until something happens,
by the grace of God, because yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Can turn my head a certain way and I feel it,
like like even with running my fingers across.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I cannot leave it alone.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I have it stick out where I can fit it.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I stick out to but I definitely.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
But and that's how I am. Like, you know, every
time I get some kind of surgery, my hands automatically
go to that location just to fellow around. I guess
to see what's normal and what's not. You were talking
about your deck surgeries. I had one, and that was
(19:40):
the one at birth. It goes across. It was across three.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
I had three. The last one I had was my
third because the first one I had the first one
I had a birth. Then I have one when I
was probably I want to say, maybe sixte maybe sixteen,
And because of the way I stood, I stood with
I would walk like this or they were trying to
(20:09):
sit me up. So every time I walked the girls
with you it's a party how y'all doing. So they
was trying to make sure they kind of correct that
as best as they could. So that was the first
one after birth, and then I had one in twenty dates. Man, well,
I just remember. I remember the day, but I'm trying
not to. Twenty eighteen is the year that I had
(20:32):
the last one, and that was because there was my
backbone was pressing on what my tether for it, and
he had to go in and strip the phone down
off of it and then retethered it. And the reason
why I had the symptoms for that is because my
nerves was really bad. I was really hurt. I mean
my whole hits was hurt. In my back. I could
(20:53):
barely move. I could barely do anything anything. And he
said he had me on medication for a while, about
me two years, and he said we're not gonna do
it to be ready to do it, because he knows
I've been cut one too many times and I'm not
honestly betting cut. Someone has to be I'm mean, the
medicine to work, and so I don't have to be cut.
But the work it worked for as long as it
(21:14):
could until I was like, you know, Doc, I'm there
just let's let's just get this go with because I
was tired of keep I was tired of letting my
gallu hit and keep going up. I didn't want to
go to another dose of gallivating because I was like,
I want to do that. I want to get off
of this kill. So I know right now I'm still
on it, but it's because I am actually on a
lower dose than I was. But still I'm like, mm mmm,
(21:36):
I'm gonna need this to go away. So he did
the same guy who guys knows my son being broke,
same man who did my He that's actually I believe
the last Thursday or one of the last thurdy he
actually did, and mine was it My back surgy was
the last one he actually did it. So I'm thankful.
I mean, when you have a good neurosurgeon, you don't
want that ny gonna where. But I had to change
(21:59):
to go to another plant because he doesn't do thirdery
and I'm in the country, and so I have to
go someplace that's close to I can get to. I
was upset. I feel like people family. I was like,
wait a minute, I don't want to go. I don't
want to go. Doctor Royd. I'm like, nah, I knew
his secretary. You know what I'm saying. They were family,
So I'm like, wait a minute, how I'm gonna do this?
(22:20):
So I was upset. But when you have a good
thurd than my body, but this other one you put
me where he's good too, So I'm thankful for that.
But we know the real position, so we good.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
We are a part of a very large community of
people that have hydrocephalus and spina bifida. I have seen
I don't know if you have, but I've seen some
instances where people have been fortunate enough to have their
(22:54):
shunt removed. Me too, mix me just I want this
thing out, but I do understand that it is keeping
me alive, and it's keeping me here because I still
have work.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, that's who were getting to the brain where's at right? Well,
I'm thankful for that for you and.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Me, and I mean just being in the community and
seeing these babies with this in like these third world
countries that don't have access to the doctors that we had,
where their heads are extremely big and stollen, and and
(23:44):
it breaks my heart too because a lot of them
don't make it.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, and it's but I realized this is a this
is a den thing, this is this is not just
a sunk thing. This is a brain surgery. You are
actually going into somebody's heads, touching their brain area and
fixing the fluid or trying to fix the yeah, trying
to fix the food intake. So this is not and
(24:13):
I didn't really I never think. I never thought I
realized that that was that until, like he said, I
got older. I did not realize that I was actually
having brain thurd Like, I never thought that that would
be the case until I looked into it. So more
was like, oh wow, this is real, this is this
is really serious. This really damaged me. And that's why
(24:35):
I'm worried about my bilife brother because I'm like, God
gave me the same symptoms that he currently has now
because I need to make sure that he has what
he needs to have done. And I'm like, okay, you
know what I mean to telling me they need to
fix their son. I'm like, this is telling them to
call me and they need to pick that son asap,
(24:56):
because he's like you, he's had his son that he
can really member all his life. But because of him
not having the sun repaired fast enough, like I did
some of his you know, some of his the comprehensions
and things like that. Still was a kind of slightly off.
(25:17):
So I gotta let him know this ain't nothing to
play with. Let's do this now a fac I'm like, okay, father,
I want to see all of that. You could have
give me the regular symptoms sad and so I knew
what it was. I was said, nine, we're gonna go last,
please take it off for help, and yeah, I was
like okay. And then when I talked to my brother
(25:37):
and he's just having those same answers our stops, I
was like, okay, because just wanted me to do this.
Is this was your plan? So you guys don't play
about me.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Is you know you have a sibling that has the
same thing that we have and uh, I you know,
being born into the family I was born into, I'm
the only one that was born with the disability that
I'm aware of. And it's hard because there's really nobody
(26:10):
to lean on. Family, Yeah, because nobody knows what I'm
dealing with.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
But I can relate to that. Why because I was
adopted and nobody in my family has finals They didn't
adopt another CHILDE was trying to visit. You know, my
mom wanted to be the keeople. That was going to
be too much that she didn't want. She didn't want
my brother. At one point she said she didn't want
us to be separated, but she just couldn't do it.
That's just that was just too much, right. I mean,
you were to say I was able to walk, and
then you have him, and then you know what I'm saying,
(26:38):
you don't know so and he doesn't walk, so that
would have been a lot. I mean, let's let's not
say he probably wouldn't have been able to walk, and
he came to my family because we determined, folks, we're
gonna make you walk. But I mean I did what
you're saying because I don't. I did not I had
I don't ever really remember having a friend with finf
(26:58):
for that to understand and relate what I'm going until
I met you on Facebook and some other people and
was like, oh, it's a community, okay, okay. Because I
felt like you, I was lost. I didn't have nobody
that was understanding.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I felt like I was the only person alive with it,
and I felt like it was punishment because I was like,
these doctors can't even pronounce it correctly, And I'm like,
how you adopted and you can't but and whatever else
we got going on.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Let's not talk about WFB here all day.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
You know that this month is coming to an end,
and this month was a hydro siphilis awareness month. Is
there anything special that you've done that you feel you
wouldn't have been able to do otherwise now because it
(28:02):
or say or just in general in general?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Okay, in general, I am definitely doing something that I
never thought I would do, nor did the doctors think
I would do, because you know, they give you the
death sentions of fining a business and you ain't gonna
be nothing to them in the corner and the suits
and leave them now. It's like Scenarrow. So yeah, I
(28:25):
was sold. I was not gonna be able to walk.
I was not gonna be able to function on my own.
I was not gonna be able to do anything. I'm
living by myself. I'm actually doing online learning online college campus.
I just started being a volunteer to greet people for
new students, and I'm in my third I'm going into
my fourth quarter. Yeah, into my fourth quarter and third quarter.
(28:48):
I got straight as my EPA is four point Oh
won't you do it? Won't do it? Yeah, And that's god,
that's nothing, but guy, because when I tell you, I
didn't see myself doing nobody's college know nothing like that
at getting a degree of closing. Yeah, that's that's nothing.
(29:10):
Doctors has seen that. Sometimes I wish the doctors was
still alive because I'm only not here probably, but yeah,
I wish it was allied. Yeah, no, you don't know,
my god, no, he got the final face up.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
I remember.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
When I was adopted, they had a and remind me
to show it to you. There's a thing in the
paper that they put in the paper, I guess trying
to get somebody to adopt me and stuff like that.
And my grandmother biological, she clipped it out the paper
(29:51):
and saved it, like almost like she knew that they
were gonna find me. The way that they worded things
dealing with the hydrocephalist and the spine of bit for
the and being that I was a baby. I was
eighteen months old when I got adopted. It's crazy like
(30:14):
they had this whole, like half a page of the
newspaper where they had a picture. Yeah, they had a
picture of me, a description of what I was dealing with.
And the one word, the one word that stuck out
(30:34):
to me because of brain surgery, they said that I
was retarded. That was the word that they chose to use.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
That's what they try to say when they're telling the
parents put them on the institutions of we're gonna be flapped.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah, I was supposed to be institutionalized.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
The one thing I can say about my mom is
she wouldn't going for none of that. She went right
ahead and stuck me in in regular education with the
rest of the people.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
And today.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I had no issues with retaining anything except for math.
Math is of the devil. I don't care who who
who like it, who love it or whatever.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
We don't. We're here to tell you right now. Do
not like that.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
It's a common thing, like you can actually google it.
People that have hydrocephalis and struggle with math, And it's
the craziest thing. But and I wouldn't wish it on
anybody because those sleep, those sleepless nights that I endure
(31:59):
a lot. It's just it's hard because I be wanting
to hit somebody up. You awake you awake, you awake,
you up.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
That's why I keep my phone off with you crazy.
I love you, but I'm won't get you up when
I get up, get set. So I'm about to, like
twelve one o'clock you want to play for us, but
if I see get you up to get up. I
(32:27):
love you, though I.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Know I love you too. I was trying to think.
I wanted to ask you, how does living with the
disability affect you? Going to school and doing all of
all of that and having a social life and stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Social life? So life life, This is my supposal life.
You're my supposed to life. Oh my goodness, how does
it effect well? I I can't really say it affects
too much because my adopted mother was no I really
would speaker could have met her and my parents, because
I promise you she was no joke. From the age
(33:10):
of as long as I remember, probably fifty years old,
maybe I can probably go that far. She didn't play,
She did not never. She never treated me like I
was just saying. She would never let my dad do it.
She never no, because she's gonna have to fun on
her own. She's gonna to herself. And so when I
got old enough to learn how to, you know, cook
for myself or cook and help her cook. She was like, yeah,
(33:33):
you better figure it out. If you're gonna stop, you
better know how to do this. But she always spoke
things over my life that I in my mind could
not even fathom. She would speak over marriage, she would
speak over me going to college. He would speak over
me driving. She saw things in me because she said,
there's nothing wrong with me, right, She said, you may
(33:57):
have something physically wrong, and you can't do a lot
of things physically, but there's nothing wrong with you, she said.
And that was this is the one thing she always said.
You could do anything you put your mind. He said,
I found that out at the age of two and
a half three years old, when you told me in
the car with miraculously, I'm gonna walk on me. And
she said she didn't know what to do with that,
(34:18):
because she said, where'd that come from? Obviously God, because
she said, I just busted out saying it at three
years I probably started walking around three years old, my
sister at eighty three almost three years old. Yeah, around three.
So she was like, you were determined, she said, So
I know you determined to do whatever you want. So
(34:41):
living on my own has been a different change of
pace because this is the first time I've ever done that.
I went from being a girlfriend, being a fiance, being
a wife to being separated divorce. So I'm like, oh, father,
this is a heck of a path we're going on.
But it's been answer because why Because I'm able to
(35:02):
now put into action which I was already doing anyway,
but put into actions how to take care of myself.
I mean, I'm not saying I wouldn't like a partners.
I'm not saying I with my department, but I don't
need right, you know what I'm saying, because my mom
taught me everything. I take here of my own stuff.
(35:24):
I handed my bills, I handled whatever I need, grocery delivered,
Thank God to have that now, so is delivered. You
know what I'm saying. I handle my own I set
up my own insurance so I get my fans to
pation so I can go to the doctor. So nobody
has to come and help me. Because why, Because I'm
trying to make sure that I don't have to depend
upon nobody. My mom never wanted that, so depending upon
(35:46):
people is not where of that far. So I don't
want to have to go back and do that when
I need you or I owe you for doing this.
Mama always said, if you don't have to ask, don't,
don't you're gonna owe somebody and you don't need that.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
And everybody that says if you need anything called, they
don't mean it, because the minute you call, you go
straight the voicemail or you've got to hear some type
of excuse or whatever.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah. Yeah, oh god, I do it myself.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
We're about to come to a close. Yeah, And I
just wanted to know if there's anything that you would
like to put out in the atmosphere for maybe a
child that is growing up that has hydrocephalus and in
(36:45):
school and trying to maintain a good grade because you've
been doing you've been doing a dang one things since
you've been in college and this. Yeah. Yeah, So if
there's anything that you want to say before we head
(37:06):
out the floor, is yours?
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Okay? Well, Antonio, thank you for that beautiful message. You see,
we're fine, we're crazy. But as for parents and students,
you know who know they have hide your sisters. I
just say, let's your child be let them, let them,
let him go up and be where they're supposed to be.
(37:31):
Let God do what he's gonna do with them. Pray
over there, pray over the baby, keep them covered because
people don't understand that the doctors don't know everything. Because
I promise you God got the final pay. I wasn't
supposed to do nothing with my life. And when I
tell you, I look back over my life and be like, Father,
(37:55):
what were we doing here? I mean, this lady right here
made me an offer through the Father because listening because
I didn't see none of that happened, and I was like,
oh no, I write what I want to do that,
so don't stop you.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I just feel like everybody has a story to tell,
and being that were born with disabilities and being adopted,
there's so much, you know, we can pull apart and
share with others so that they might be able to urge.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
We're here to encourage people and it sounds bad to say,
but it's not bad to say because we most disabled
people don't want to be that inspiration for you. But
in general, that's what God made us to be in
a way because why because He wants you to see that,
Oh you being lazy by what you're doing. Look at
what they're doing, and they got to fight a hard
(38:53):
and fight to get to what you're trying to do. Right,
so it's like, are you kidding me? You really just
gonna be killing? And that's what Goda saying, y'all gonna
get killing and these people are out here doing it.
So yeah, well, we we're here to do what God
wanted to do. And if that's an inspire.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Absolutely you sure. Later well, I would like to thank
everybody for tuning in tonight to delay but not deny
the podcast. We will be back the second Monday and
fourth Friday of October. October is spin a bit for
(39:38):
their awareness.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Much so we'll be back.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
We will definitely be back and we'll discuss find a
bit for them what that's like and hopefully educate some
people and hopefully, yeah, and educate and inspire because we
want we want the family to be able to understand
that that.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
They can go and do whatever they want, absolutely whatever
they want. Don't look at your child and think that
they have limitations, because they don't. I promise you. My
mama didn't give me none. I got to think like
everybody else, Listen, I got it all. I was a
normal child.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
I definitely was treated normally to a certain degree, I'll say,
because my mama treated me like flying China, like if
you touch me, she's gonna break, and so.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Couldn't.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Yeah, there was a lot of things I couldn't. I
couldn't do because my mom was scared, so he was nervous.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, it's not I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
I know, you know it at all, not even a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
I mean, you had your baby, but you didn't treat
him like that, so you know you let him deep. Yeah,
so I get that. I get yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
So, but again, thank you for co hosting tonight. I
look forward to the fourth Friday of October so that
we can do it again. I want to tell my
my audience thank you for stopping by and checking us out,
seeing what we do. Come back again. The conversation is
(41:25):
always different. So yeah, that's all I got. So thank
y'all for coming out. God bless you tonight.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
HM
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