"You're one of the Florida kids, right?"

Week 1, down.
 
It’s hard to fathom that just a week ago, I was nervously walking into Nemours by 9am, crooked femur and all and in the O.R. by 12pm.
 
In one week, I’ve met more people than I can count, tried to make a granny style walker look cool, re-mastered the art of manual wheelchairs (and the art of convincing people to push me), watched lots of baseball (but what’s new) and with 3 hours of rehab a day, I’ve pretty much never been so exhausted in my life.
 
As I talk to more people, patients and employees included, I realize more and more how remarkable my medical team and this place actually is.
 
I get lots of surprised reactions when I say I’m from Florida or when people see my excessive Gator Gear.
 
But, when I say I came for Dr. Miller, it’s like a lightbulb goes off in their head, they’re faces relax and it all makes sense.
 
“He’s kinda world renown,” one PT told me. “People come from all over for him.”

Maybe the coolest thing to me though, is that right now on 3West, there’s 3 of us (2 of us from FL) that Dr. Miller operated on, who are all in college. And I’m pretty sure he operated on all of us on the same day too.
 
The thing about this life in the world of medical challenges, is that it can be isolating.
 
Not everyone understands or knows how to react to any of us.
 
Cancer patient, CP kid, whatever it is, sometimes it feels like we’re human curveballs to people and nobody knows what to do with us.
 
So, when you meet kids who are going through the same things you are, it’s special.
 
All 3 of us college kids have broken femurs right now. I actually think I’m the only one of us with only one femur broken. 

Pretty sure Dr. Miller is the only person that can make you happy to have a broken leg.
 
We pass each other in the gym and live just down the hall from each other.
 
 And though we haven’t talked extensively with one another yet, I have rarely met other kids with CP, let alone ones going through the same surgery at the exact same time as me.
 
I know that the Florida moms are planning to squad up soon.
 
This experience is super hard. But there are parts of it that are really cool.

~

We get our therapy schedules knocked down to an hour and a half a day on the weekends and have this Monday off for the holiday.
 
Though therapy is hard, it gives me something to do while being here. So it’ll be interesting to see how this weekend plays out with less to do.
 
I’ve been on a roll with playing people in iMessage games, so if you’re up for some competition, feel free to blow up my iMessage.
 
Because despite popular belief, one can watch too much Netflix.
 
To everyone who has sent us things and kept us in your prayers, truly thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
 
Like I’ve said a million times before, but I really really mean it, all the support and prayers mean the world to us. Really. We wouldn’t be here without it.

​Romans 12:4-5
“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.”