Sure I can tell a little bit about me..
When I was born I was born with both of my femurs broken...it took 6 weeks before they realized this by then my legs healed bow shaped...a few weeks later they broke when my mom changed my diaper...obviously she flipped out! so they took me to a specialist in Kansas City who diagnosed me with Osteo-Genesis Imperfecta Type IV, which is basically brittle bones...so all throughtout my years I would be walking up stairs and snap their goes my tibilia or push a toy truck for example when I was 6 slipped and broke my humerus...all in all I have broken every bone in my body at least once...
at age 8 in a hot Tennessee summer day, my desire to be normal took over..I was sheltered and basically kept away from anything fun as kids would do...so when my mom was cooking dinner I took off with my friends and decided on a triple dog dare to go down this steep hill on a skateboard...i made it half way down, lost control and came to about 10 minutes later...by then my life changed.
I shattered my right femur to dust, two discs in my back were blown out and a lot of other stress fractures.
After being in traction for 2 days they performed an IT nailing surgery of my right femur...afterwards my left leg was 2.5 inches shorter than my right leg...so they figured to beef my left femur up by IT nailing that one, however they did not account for the growth of my right leg during the casting/healing of my left leg...
1 inch longer still they decided to do a bone stretcher device on my left tib-fib...it broke my leg every 4 hours slowly stretching it...
countless surgeries later I basically was told at 9 with all this that a life on cructhes or a wheelchair would be a great case scenario...so my parents got me a trainer to help strengthen my upper body up..i was hooked when I first touched a weight...
my freshman year in high school I weighed 51 pounds, I graduated at 160.
I have broken my bones a few times in the gym, but it is worth it...by working out and building muscle, I in essence created a shield around my weak bones and through time my bones have gotten stronger...
so 18 surgeries later to my legs I am living a dream...this sport is too great for the masses to not realize what it can do for you, and you alone!
This has been my first prep ever I have not been injured...I have a few stress fractures currently in my legs, but am managing to push through it because being here is a goal I set 4 years ago to be nationally competitive by 30 (I turn 30 in sept) After this show I am taking a few weeks off to heal and plan to do Nationals because ATL is close to Nashville and I have a great support system..
If you all want to know anything more please ask, I plan on getting to know all of you over the years to come...
And yes I am an advocate for performance enhancers in other avenues of life...they are not the evil the media and other idiots prescribe...hell my doctor who did all my surgeries would love to prescribe me it, but they would yank his license because my bone wasting disease is not wasting enough..oh well I just live for the moment and enjoy it all because walking is something they told me I would not do so now I run and I run with my 4 year old son and get to do things I was told I WOULD NEVER DO!
Bottom line: DO NOT LET WHAT YOU CANNOT DO INTERFERE WITH WHAT YOU CAN DO!
-Jeff
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