Uncured

The beginning

About me: I'm Christina, I was born May 11th, 1999.

One word I would use to describe my life would be " hell ".
When my mom was pregnant with my sister and me, ( yes I am a twin ) the doctors told her that they found a problem with the babies.. They said that due to the babies being discordant, ( meaning that only one is on the growing side, while the other is being smushed ) Baby B, me, was not getting enough nutrients and shrinking in size, which was dangerous. My twin was growing and thriving while I was the opposite.

I am an identical twin and I was the runt of the litter. I was incredibly tiny and weak, I was so small the only place they could put my IV was in my forehead. I'm embarrassed to say this but I SWEAR I looked like an alien at birth.
Anyways, due to being premature my sister and I were both developmentally delayed. My parents were used to us achieving milestones a little bit later than most babies our age.. But that all changed when I was not even a year old.
Let me introduce myself again, I am christina, I am 18 years old and ever since I was 11 months old, I have had chronic pain.
It all started with typical toddler talk. I would yell the word, " OW! " and my parents just thought it was a random word that I must've heard and picked up. Then I  began holding my leg and saying " ow " at the same time. I even refused to walk or go let anybody touch me, ( especially anywhere near my legs ) I was a cranky baby from the start, so I assume that I have been in pain since birth, ( which cannot be proved by the way )
My parents noticed the stiffness in me and the way I was inconsolable, they called my doctor and all they said was, " she just doesn't want to learn how to walk! "

Oh how they were wrong..

In the first few years of my life, I had been going from doctors in Stockton, Merced, Sacramento, Madera, YOU NAME IT! I had gone to all sorts of hospitals with all sorts of specialists. Not one person truly listened to my case, because I was just a little kid who wanted attention. That's all I was to them in their eyes, but they were wrong.
I wanted HELP, there is a huge difference! I was just a little kid wanting to be pain free.
I'm 18 now and I still don't have any type of relief. My pain has advanced and I have a medical team that can't do much because of how aggressive the disease is now.
The "treatments " my doctors suggest are never approved by the insurance, and they suggest my family and I pay out of pocket, ( that is something that we can't afford to do.)
I was supposed to be seen at Lucille Packards Children's Hospital, but my insurance denied it at the last minute. At first I had hospitals telling me that I can't get a certain test done because of my age, that I was too young. Well now I'm 18 and I get told, " oh yeah.. it would've been better if you did this much EARLIER! " as if I hadn't been fighting for it to be done just a few years earlier.
You see, I'm not just mad because I'm in pain, I'm mad because nobody BELIEVES that I am in pain. I have met many other kids through support pages who have similar stories to mine, they too suffer from chronic pain, and they are also ignored by doctors.

My goal here is to raise awareness of childhood pain, because kids don't deserve to suffer, only to be told that they are making it up. Pain is not a mental illness, it's not something made up so that the one suffering, can receive drugs. It is something real and it DESTROYS the person who has it!
Mentally and physically.