Shortness and Turner Syndrome

Shortness and Turner Syndrome

How Tall Are You? 

    One of my pet peeves about being short is when people ask me "How tall are you?" Sometimes I honestly want to respond, "I'm 6 ft. 2 in., how tall are you?" just to mess with them and see their reaction (I think it'd be pretty hilarious). Now, I'm not saying that if height gets brought up you can't ask how tall I am, that's normal social interaction. It only bothers me when people ask how tall I am out of the blue, because they were just thinking about how short I am. I've actually had people come up to me and say, "Wow, you're short," like they're just stating a fact. No, really?! I had NO IDEA I'm short! It doesn't offend me or anything, I just don't understand the point of it. They probably expect me to get mad or upset, but I usually just nod my head and say "Yeah...". 

I Am Not An Armrest 

    For some reason that I will never understand, people love putting their elbows on my shoulder when they stand next to me. To me, it almost feels like they just want to show how much taller they are than me; that's the only explanation I can think of. Still, whenever I see somebody whose shorter than me, like a kid, my first reaction isn't "OH! THAT PERSON'S SHORTER THAN ME! I CAN USE THEM AS AN ARMREST!" 

Not Being Able to Reach Things

   The most embarrassing thing is having to ask someone to get something down from a high shelf for you because you can't reach it. It's not embarrassing because you're short. No, it's embarrassing because of how people react to it when you ask them. Instead of just saying, "Oh yeah, sure!" 99% of people say something along the lines of "Awe! You can't reach that?!" or something to that effect. One of these days I'm going to respond with, "No, I can, I just wanted you to do it for me and thought it would be fun to ask." 

Driving and Turner Syndrome

Driving and Turner Syndrome

     I was excited to start Driver's Ed when I turned fifteen, but I quickly began to feel nervous whenever I drove. My nervousness was due to two factors relating to Turner's; my height and spatial difficulties. I got my permit when I was sixteen, and then did not get my license until I was eighteen and had graduated high school. I took the test once when I was eighteen and failed, and then took it again a few months later and passed. When I had my permit I was reluctant to drive; my parents always teased me and said I was the only teenager who had to be forced to drive.

Height and Driving

    A lot of people don't realize how much you're height effects your ability to drive. The height of the seats in my car can be adjusted, but I need to have the seat as high as it will go and be sitting on a pillow to drive comfortably. I also have to have the seat pulled as close to the break and gas pedals as I can. I had been told sitting on a pillow would help me see, but I refused to try it while I had my permit. I think I was embarrassed, and was afraid that when people found out I needed to sit on it they would either tease me, or be afraid that I wasn't a good driver because I had to sit on it. Now I realize that the fact that I recognized that I was having trouble seeing, and made changes to fix it, makes me a more responsible and safe driver, not a bad one. Also, that the only people whose opinion of me I cared about were the ones telling me to try a pillow, so I didn't care if anyone else teased me about it. 

Spatial Difficulties and Driving

   Spatial difficulties are very common in girls with Turner's, and my spatial difficulty was the biggest issue I had with driving. I could never tell if I had time to pull out into traffic or not, or if I had room to go by someone, or if I had room to pull forward when I was parking. I always erred on the side of caution, but it always annoyed my parents when I would sit waiting to turn left when they thought I clearly could have gone. After a lot of practice, I have gotten better at determining these things, and feel much more comfortable driving. 

Friendships and Turner Syndrome

Friendships and Turner Syndrome

     One of the hardest things about Turner's is the fact that it's so rare. In my life, I have only met one other girl with Turner's. This is what has motivated me to start this blog, and a Twitter page dedicated to Turner's as a way to connect with other girls who have it. Even though I don't have any friends with Turner's, I think my friends have had a huge part of how I deal with Turner's.
     When I was little, my parents always told me not to tell anyone about my Turner's. I think this was to protect me, so that my friends wouldn't think of me as having something wrong with me, or tease me about it. Once I got to middle school, I began telling my close friends about it. I remember always getting extremely nervous before telling them, like once I told them they'd think I was weird and not want to be friends with me, or laugh at me. That never happened to me, though. Over time, I have become more open about Turner's, and it's no longer a big deal for me to tell people about it. 
     A lot of my friends don't really know how to react when my Turner's gets brought up. It seems like their hesitant to say anything,or ask questions about it, because they don't want to say or ask anything hurtful or offensive. I understand that, but I would much rather have my friends just say or ask whatever's on their mind, or ask any questions about it. That's what my closest friend, Elizabeth, does. I appreciate it. It makes me feel more comfortable talking about it, and it's just much better than tiptoeing around it. 
      Not having a friend with Turner's was the hardest part of having Turner's for me when I was younger, but the friends I made in middle school and high school helped me a lot. 

Introduction to Turner Syndrome

Introduction to Turner Syndrome

What Is Turner Syndrome?

   Turner Syndrome is a chromosomal disorder that is only found in females, and it is a very rare disorder effecting only 1 in 2,000 females. It is caused by the female missing either part of an X chromosome or an entire X chromosome. 
  Girls with Turner's are typically short (the average untreated height is 4 ft. 7 in.), are infertile due to underdeveloped ovaries, have difficulty with spatial tasks, and have a greater risk of developing Type II Diabetes and Hypothyroidism.

My experience with Turner Syndrome

   I am a nineteen year old college freshman, and my major is nursing. I am 4 ft. 10 in. tall, and will not be able to have children. I also have a mitral valve murmur, which is a heart murmur common among girls with Turners. Basically, your heart has 4 "rooms"; the right and left atria and ventricles. There are also "doors" to these "rooms", called valves. These valves open and close to prevent blood from flowing into one of the "rooms" it's not supposed to go into. The Mitral, or Bicuspid, valve separates the left ventricle and atria. My Bicuspid valve does not close all of the way when my heart contracts, so some of the blood pumping through my heart flows back into the left atria from my left ventricle when my heart contracts. 
   I was diagnosed with Turner's when I was two years old. I began taking growth hormone when I was two and a half, and I took an injection of it every night until I was fifteen. Ovaries produce estrogen and progesterone (the main female hormones responsible for breast development and menstrual cycles), but my ovaries do not produce those hormones, so I began taking hormone replacements when I was thirteen as well. 
    Different things have bothered me about having Turner's throughout my life. When I was younger (around 5-10 years old), it was the shot of growth hormone that bothered me. It hurt. Plus, I didn't think it was fair that my sister, who is two years younger than me, didn't have to have a shot. Then, once I got older and started middle school, I started to realize that I was different. That not only did my sister not have to take a shot, but nobody else I knew had to. I think I connected the shot with my feeling of being different, and the shot began to represent my differences. I remember some nights it would really hit my when I had to take the shot, and I would just start crying to my mom, saying things like, "I don't want to take the shot! Nobody else has to! Why am I different, why do I have to take it?" It was also around this time that I found out I would not be able to have kids, and began taking two hormones. This also made me feel different, because all the other girls didn't have to take pills to grow boobs or have their periods, and they would all be able to have kids when they wanted to. 
    I stopped the growth hormone half way through my Freshman year of high school, and that helped. I didn't have that reminder that I was different every night. I also started to mature, and realize that even though having to take a shot every night made me different, it also made me stronger. I also realized that a lot of women can't have kids, not just girls with Turner's, and that there were plenty of other options for me, like adoption. However, my infertility is now the hardest part of Turner's for me to deal with.