A few years ago (2000-ish), I posted on this board regularly under the name Mara (I like my privacy).  I was just becoming interested in what CAH is and what it means for me.  I stopped when I became tired of people complaining about how awful their lives were because of CAH; life is too precious to be squandered in complaint.  Recently I came upon the board again, and decided to leave one last message with my views on CAH and its effect on my life.

I am currently 19 and a sophomore in college.  I am the youngest of three children, and the only one with CAH (non-SW).  My parents never treated me differently; I was allowed to stay at friends’ houses, run around getting banged up, and everything else kids are supposed to do.  My parents were only a phone call away if I got sick or hurt, so they let me go out and be a kid. 

Through this, I have become a (relatively) well-adjusted young woman.  I am in my second year at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where I’m majoring in biology and psychology.  I hope to someday be a doctor.  I have been dating a wonderful young man for over a year now, whom I would like to marry and have a family of my own with.  He doesn’t care that I have CAH; to him, it’s just another part of loving me.

If given the choice, I would not change having been born with CAH.  My life has not been perfect - I have skeletons hidden away, same as everyone else - but CAH is a part of me.  I have had countless hospital visits, doctor appointments, and blood draws, and I think they have made me a more compassionate person and, someday, a better doctor.  I am in a constant battle with my medication levels, but it doesn’t matter because I’m alive.  I’ll take any amount of medication and side effects to get the chance to watch my beautiful baby niece grow up.  My parents chose for me to have the hotly debated surgery, and even though I have a more than partial loss of external sensation, it was worth it; children don’t need more ways to make each other feel like different and excluded.  Intimacy between a couple goes far past mere physical sensations.  I get tired of taking pills and being treated like a medical curiosity any time I see a different doctor or nurse.  Such is life.  God gives us all talents and burdens to work with, and where we go with what we’re given is one of the truest measures of character.

I apologize for the lengthy post and will retire from my soapbox.  Thank you for your attention.
Yours,
Laura