Lend Me a Smile Prologue

Prologue

Lend Me A Smile
Prologue

Okay listen, I'm not going to sit here and act like a St. Jude commercial full of smiling, happy kids because that's not what it's like.
I'm going to be brutally honest with this so if you have a weak heart, or stomach for that matter, I highly recommend you put this book down. I'll wait for you to decide.
And here we are! The strong few! Hope you made the right choice.

I can't say it began one day with some kind of intuition. To be honest, the days kind of blur together.
"Why do you wanna write this?" you may ask. The answer is simple. To bring light to a subject that hasn't been discussed. People need to know about it and I want to be the one to tell you.
I was always a sick child. Colds, viruses, infections. They clung to me as if I was their last hope for survival. Even high doses of antibiotics couldn't shake them for so long as a week.
I'm 15 now and I learned to swallow "Horse Pills" by the age of five. (Ooh that's good I should put that on my resume.) Name an antibiotic and I've either taken it or heard of it.
Think brussels sprouts are the worst tasting thing ever? Call me when you take chalky pills mashed up in pudding.
I was born with Fanconi Anemia, a bone marrow failure disorder that lowers immune systems and often results in cancer or cancerous tumors.
Some people live their whole lives not knowing they have FA.
I was not one of those lucky few.
I can't complain though. Most people have it a lot worse. I am virtually normal, only having short stature, café ole spots, and a hypoplastic thumb(my thumb doesn't have a muscle so it doesn't bend. It's straight and skinny. It's a great conversation starter) as a sign of FA.
Fanconi kids vary with a large array of symptoms. Missing fingers, deafness, horseshoe shaped kidneys, high voices, and eyes that are unexplainable but if you saw them you'd know immediately that they had FA. I could go on and on. But I'll spare you the details. The boring ones at least.