|
My name is Anthony Chaplin and I was born in 1990. I
have one brother and one sister. My brother’s name is Stuart and my
sister’s name is Sarah.
I go to Merchant Taylors’ School for boys. My brother
also goes there, he is in year 12 or as the school calls it the
Lower 6th form. He is 17, smart and a Computer whiz. I am in year 10
or as the school calls it the Divisions, This makes me 14 and if you
do the maths you’ll find that I’ve had
over 4000
injections and counting!!! (That’s more than most
people in a life time!!) My sister is 12 and at Haberdashers in her
1st year.
Idiopathic Hypopitiutarism is my medical condition.
Every night when I was young, and still now, I have to face
THE NEEDLE.
However I’m used to it now so it doesn’t bother me much anymore, but
what bothers me is - I have to put up with it for the rest of my
life.
Every morning a normal child would get up and have
breakfast then get washed and dressed ready for school. I, however,
have half a pill and five even smaller ones, then I put a quarter
pill in a pillbox into my jacket ready for lunchtime.
I also have to wear a bracelet all the time, even
while sleeping. Some people at M.T.S teased me for wearing it and
said I was a girl because only girls wear bracelets. But I have to
put up with it because it could one day save my life, you never
know.
The upside is that we have met some really nice
people, like Richard Stanhope, who is my doctor, and Tam and Vreli
Fry, who run the support group for people with my condition. And I
have even been in the Times newspaper and there was a big picture of
my mother and me. And I’ve also been on the TV!!!
Other than my condition I have a very normal life. I
like to read, ride my bike when I get a new one, play on the Game
cube when my brother isn’t hogging it. We are always fighting which
makes mum scream.
I guess I’m lucky because years ago they couldn’t
have treated my condition and I would be a sick “little” boy -
because without the needle (sigh!) I wouldn’t grow.
Now that I am at the age of puberty I’ve been having
Monthly Testosterone Injections (they are Intra Muscular and not
very pleasant). However, I’m about to start a new type of treatment
for this, it is a small tablet (oh great more tablets!) that I place
just over my gum when I go to sleep and I take it off when I wake
up. I’ll be starting this very soon now and I’ll let you all know
how it goes!
|
