My name is Charlotte and I was born on February 13, 1974. When I was born, the doctors called my condition Congenital Binding. No one knew what it was and I had lived most of my life not really knowing exactly what had happened. With help from my mother and her new family doctor, whom she began seeing a few years ago, they were able to pinpoint the cause.
When my mother was 4 months into her pregnancy, her water broke. Not enough to induce labour. She had woken up in the middle of the night to urinate only to realize what had happened. Labour did not start and the pregnancy progressed normally. The delivery was not a normal one. I was born through caesarian section because of a low heart rate. At that time, women were put to sleep and the husband was not allowed in the operating room. I was physically healthy when delivered but was missing my left leg about 3 quarters below my knee, a band around my right ankle. The thumbs on my hands developed normally as did the forefinger on my right hand. The forefinger on my left hand had a slight band around the knuckle and had not developed as the right forefinger did. The third and forth finger on my left hand were very small, only about an inch long, and the third and pinky finger on my right hand were about 2 inches long.
I had two operations at birth, one to separate the two fingers on my left hand and one to relieve the band on my right ankle. When I started to walk, I was fitted with my first prosthetic leg. Every 7 years after that date, until age 19, I had surgery to remove the excess fabia bone that was growing from the bottom of my stump. Also, pretty much after every surgery I would be fitted with a new prosthetic leg.
I’ve never had the opportunity to meet or talk to someone who has had the same experience I had. I’m glad I was able to find this site and hope that I can meet some people who are like me.
