Eighth Doctor

At the Clinic, I got every type of wart treatment possible: liquid nitrogen, cantharidin “beetle juice”, candida yeast injection, and fluorouracil (a drug used in chemotherapy). Each doctor promised they would be more relentless with the virus than the previous one, and that their method of treatment would work- but the results were always the same. It would have been easy for me to give up hope, to simply let the warts dictate how I

decided to name me Layla Camille Herbin, which means dark knight and silent warrior. After seeing the boxer Laila Ali on television, my mother fell in love the name. My parents told me that immediately after I was born, my father took me from the doctor and raised me up to dedicate me to God. They describe it to me like the scene in the movie Roots. Before I was born, I went through a lot. One day my mother went to a doctor’s appointment and found that she had Gestational

It was bad. They hooked me up to Blood transfers and IV treatments.” They had seven girls in total. She was pregnant with their eighth. Jourdian had to work extremely hard to have enough money to raise his family. The hardest was him not finishing high school. Jobs were hard to come by for because of that reason. He, at one point, held three jobs at one time. He was a Carpenter,

was prescribed a cocktail of medications to try and help, but sadly nothing worked. By Christmas I was on an IV at home, bed rest, and had weekly doctor appointments. Toward the end of my pregnancy I was beginning to show signs of Toxemia. Severe headaches, dizziness, and swelling were at the top of the list. I was extremely swollen and exhausted. The doctor decided it would be in our best interest to be induced a week early. I was pretty unsure of the process,

that the pain and misery and even depression, or any sort of negative feeling you have at any point in time, is only temporary. Things will improve and do not worry about the small things in life because everything is in God’s plan for you. In eighth grade my family and i had just gotten back from Hawaii so we were extremely jet lagged. My family was in the dining room and my baby cousin had spilt water on the hardwood floor and i did not know. I ran in from the kitchen excited because i had found

change my life forever. I had a challenge to face that no one else my age had to deal with. Because of the medical condition I was born with, I had to understand literacy on an entirely different level. I had been born with insulin resistance and the doctors were always explaining what this meant, and I had to understand

many problems around the ages of 14 – 16. The first sign of this takes me back all the way to eighth grade where I was just incredibly tired. I felt absolutely horrible physically I couldn’t get out of bed, and it was hard to do some simple tasks like walking. I would be out of school for two days when my mother who thought it was the flu that was affecting eventually made an appointment for the doctor to get whatever was causing me to be this sick figured out, so I could be back to shape. My mother

many problems around the ages of 14 – 16. The first sign of this takes me back all the way to eighth grade where I was just incredibly tired. I felt absolutely horrible physically I couldn’t get out of bed, and it was hard to do some simple tasks like walking. I would be out of school for two days when my mother who thought it was the flu that was affecting eventually made an appointment for the doctor to get whatever was causing me to be this sick figured out, so I could be back to shape.

On the cold winter night of January 31, 2002, Joclyn Tracy was brought into this world. She was born with her head five centimeters larger than normal, but her parents Amy Shireman and Charles Tracy were still proud. Joclyn was born at a hospital in Jasper. She has eyes as dark as the night and only a little head of hair. As Joclyn grew to the age of two years old she began to move on foot. Trying to walk was a struggle for her. Joclyn’s toys were spread all around her room, so when she waddled

like hours until my limp body hit the tile floor. I awoke in a daze moments later, my feet being held above my now dizzy head and feeling like I had been hit like a truck. “What happened?” I mumbled as I began to sit up. The room, now filled with doctors and nurses, erupted in voices insisting I lie back down.