I am still learning more things about myself and my experiences. I’ve mentioned the time I fell down the stairs at the age of 9.

Although I knew I was in hospital for four days and I wasn’t allowed to sleep, I didn’t know it was because I had a fractured skull, and the doctors were afraid that if I slept, I'd slip into a coma.

I came across the letter about the fall when I was looking through my medical notes. Although a fractured skull isn't something a parent would divulge to a child of such a young age, there was nothing stopping them from talking to me about my experiences, when I was old enough to understand.

Whatever we go through as children, it’s important to know the facts so we can understand and place our experiences. Being able to understand our experiences gives us a clearer perspective on what we deal with.

It highlights our strengths and shapes us as individuals too. Even if a parent doesn’t think it's important, it's more important what the child thinks, since it's the child's life.

Ilana Estelle is a mental health and wellbeing advocate who combines educational insight with her personal experience of living with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. She holds diplomas in Counselling, Diet and Nutrition, Nutritional Therapy, Psychotherapy and Counselling, and Stress Management. Through her writing, Ilana supports others in navigating their emotional, mental, and physical health challenges. In addition to writing for The CP Diary, her work has appeared in healthy lifestyle magazines. Ilana is also the author of three books: Cerebral Palsy: A Story – Finding the Calm After the Storm, Spirituality, Healing and Me, and Survival: The Covid Years – Time for Change.

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4 comments on “A fractured skull”

  1. All I can add to your post is that every little piece of additional information you discover is another piece towards the whole you and that is a positive thing.

    1. Yes, I suppose so. I'm not feeling the positive though. It's more of down trodden feeling. Having been done to.

      A catastrophe of sorts to add to all the other things I've had to deal with. As a parent myself, I'm struggling to understand and why?

  2. Well, that doesn't surprise me that your parents didn't discuss this with you on top of everything else.

    I'm sure that it would have been nice to know what was going on, considering that the head injury could have brought on seizures from the Cerebral Palsy.

    My daughter started having them shortly after she had tubes put in her ears, so it doesn't seem like it would take much to trigger them.

    I'm surprised that I didn't develop them after a girl tried to crush my skull when I was 4. I know that I did have a CAT scan, the guy who did it made it feel like he was breaking my neck with the way he was twisting my head around, but I don't think there was a lot of follow up after that.

    Both of us didn't receive the proper medical care we needed, on top of nobody explaining anything, which can eventually lead to problems later on that we have to figure out on our own.

    1. Thanks Randy. Yes, it was the blind leading the blind for both of us. Sadly, like me you I'll never really know the full details.

      I just find it sad how I can recall so many details and stories that happened without the love and support that should accompany those stories.

      It is the love and support that helps us find the strength and closure in equal measures, neither of which I had, but I also feel for you too.

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