MY LIFE'S REFLECTION

In total retrospect of my life; developing water on the brain, about six weeks after I was born, and the doctors giving me just 5yrs to live over 39yrs ago, I am so grateful to
the almighty God for a miraculous development. From an infirm infant to an autonomous and athletically healthy man, I have matured.

I am Dexter Howard, born June 23, 1968 of my darling mother, Lorene Hall. I weighed five pounds, six and a half ounces. It seems I was rather small for my size. My mother told me of my brown eyes and my complexion was fair. She considered
me as a bundle of joy. My grandparents delighted in me as well and with a normal child birth, I was in-patient for a week. All was going well with my inception into life being merely routine.

Malady strikes a few weeks after birth. My mother constantly takes me back and forth to the Well baby Clinic for health check. The doctors are saying that my head and chest were growing too fast and should not be the size it is at this age. My head had measured larger than my chest size, and the shape and size of my eyes had changed. jThe physicians said I was becoming a ‘water head baby’. The medical term for this dreaded rare disease is hydrocephaly. The doctors told my mother I would die.

Hydrocephaly means literally water on the brain and it refers to an excessive build-up of fluid in and around the brain. With modern day surgery, a very effective treatment is now made possible, but in the year I was born, 1968, little was known of this infirmity, let alone of how to treat it. The effect this has on infants depends on whether the bones of the skull have finally joined together before any pressure starts to rise. In young infants whose skull bones have not joined together, the increased pressure forces the bones apart and the head starts to increase in size. But in my case, my skull bones did not join together; increased pressure forced my skull bones apart and my head size increased.

My early symptoms were: blindness, severe headaches, pneumonia, and heart attacks as an infant. During the initial diagnosis, the doctors concluded that I would need a three Shunt placement. A Shunt is a mechanic device,artificially constructed. It is used to divert the fluid from one main route to another. The shunt being connected to a cavity within the brain, passing through the body down into the bladder, allows excessive fluid from the brain to be eliminated. But as I grew older, the shunts would have to be revised, they would dislodge, which meant the doctor would have to make another incision inthe same spot over and over; there were three specific places that the doctor chose for each shunt. They would shave my head completely and would take a long needle to use to drain the fluid from within my head. They would, I am told, always go through the soft spot, to relieve some of the pressure. My mother says my cries were unrelenting because of severe pains and headaches caused by the buildup of increased fluid on my brain.

I have been healed of this dreaded illness; I was told that my parent’s church at that time fasted and prayed for me three days and three nights for my situation. Today I am
autonomous and holding down a job. I have come a long ways. I foresee myself, perhaps as being encouraging to various hydrocephalus support groups. I am one that came
through this life’s adversity.

I enjoyed memorizing things while growing up: especially sports statistics. It was not hard for me to memorize pro-football and basketball player’s individual statistics; their
names and all the colleges they attended. My grades in school were average at best. I ran track in school and also in neighborhood track meets. I have never come in 2nd place
at any time. I broke track meet records at my school.