Megan
Megan Stewart is my oldest daughter. We celebrated her 25th birthday on November 27, 2004. I still vividly remember her birth and the days leading up to that event.
Megan was born with Spina Bifida. The most severe form. Within the first hour of Megan's life the Doctors gave me a stack of literature, heavily ladened with medical jargon, to help me understand just what had happened. Megan had a condition that would probably (about a 99% change at the time) leave her in a vegetative state for whatever brief life she could expect. If, by some miracle, she was able to have any kind of life it wouldn't be one of any quality. Certainly she wouldn't be ambulatory. And there was little chance that here bowels and bladder would function properly. It was bleak.
That was a defining moment in my life. My emotions are too close to do this any justice. Let's say that what I thought of the world and how I felt about myself changed. I've never been able to look back on my life without thoughts of that day.
This afternoon I spent a few hours with Megan. Things have gone much better than those learned doctors predicted. Meg has a good job. She has many friends. She looks enough like me so that people believe that I'm her dad, but not enough like me for it to be unfortunate.
I'm proud of Meg. She's been through a lot. On the day of her birth, when she was about 2 hours old, she had some very major surgery on her back. Three weeks later she had to go under the knife once more, that time for the installation of a shunt. That was replaced when she was 11 months old and again about 3 years ago. When Meg was 5 she had to have a skin tumor removed from the base of her spinal cord. That was the worst. She was old enough to fear the surgery and not old enough to understand the big picture.
I don't know what the future holds for Meg. She goes to a Spina Bifida clinic every year. Her health seems good and she has a cheery outlook on life. Things can change pretty fast, but for now I'm going to enjoy the times I get to spend with her. I didn't expect it to be this way..........
11:24:49 PM 
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