Last Year

My name is Justin Smith and I have Kernicterus, or KI. The doctors made a simple mistake, they didn't do a simple blood test when I was a baby. I am a 16-years-old teenager who has a blog with stories. KI, caused by newborn jaundice, is preventable. I have 2 rules for this blog. 1. Do not judge me. 2. Do not throw out suggestions whenever you feel like it. These are my rules. Anyone who breaks these rules, will not see more posts on this blog.
This is my story about what happened last year in 4 paragraphs.
            Last year, I made one of the toughest decisions in my life. In the hopes of getting better control of my goofy muscles, I had Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgeries. DBS is a procedure in which two electrodes, implanted in the brain, are hooked up to a stimulator, implanted in the clavicle. So, I went through two major surgeries for my chance for more possibilities. I called DBS my Run Batted In (RBI) because I am a huge baseball fan and this was my shot at scoring in the endless game against my goofy muscles.

            About three weeks after the second surgery, I developed a staph infection. This was a huge strike and I had a PICC line, which was strike two. By August, strike three happened. The infection moved to my head. Everything DBS had to be taken out. The worst part is DBS had been working. I could make a peace sign. People understood my voice more clearly. It was gone. I could see the umpire call strike out.

            I’m going to do DBS again the week of June 15th. Two more surgeries and the hope of better control of my goofy muscles is underway. I see hope as a spark of amazing things like doing DBS or winning the World Series. 
           So, what do you take away from this? Pity? I don’t want pity. What I want you to take away is maybe my story can help you deal with tough times. That’s all any of us can try to do.