LORRI-ANN CHAMPAGNE L. A. Champagne lives life part-time in a wheelchair and leg brace due to the progression of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. She shares her life in Barrie, Ontario with Bill, her partner of 30 years, and is very proud of her growing family. EC Magazines got the chance to talk to her, here’s what...
Tell us more about yourself and how you have decided to publish a book? First off anyone reading “The Common Threads Trilogy” might think that this author, L.A. Champagne might think of it coming from just about anyone. I’ll clear that up. My pen name is my first name, Lorri-Ann. I am a 61 year old senior, disabled lady. I was born with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. In 1962, that was a death sentence, or mentally retarded and always full paralysis, but usually from the waist or chest down, depending where on your spinal cord is affected (Spina Bifida). It can show up in a few forms - which could mean a small lump on your back (called Spina Bifida Occulta). This is its
baby’s bones are soft) but, while fixing my spine they inserted a shunt in my body, so my excess spinal fluid goes through the shunt and that is how you live! My life was one miracle after another to get this body to grow as normally as I could. But it wasn’t me alone. It was doctors and teachers, family and friends that treated me normally. Most kids didn’t know that I had a unusual birth defect that was supposed to take my life. Enter Guardian Angels, and God that did 99% of the work. What or who inspired you to write this book? My 2nd grandchild. The day of his birth, I went to sleep after a long day. I was up and awake and I had this novel in
mildest form. The worst outcome would be a baby born with no brain and always is stillborn. Then there is my degree of S. B. It is called Mylomeningocele. It means to have been born with a hole in your back with two vertebrae sticking up. In my case, doctors had to put the vertebrae back down in position, making sure they do not tear the membrane covering the hole. That would mean I’d die of infection, because my cerebral spinal fluid would be exposed to the air and any kind of germ could get into the body and easily kill a baby of only 8 lbs. When you have excess or too much cerebral spinal fluid, this is Hydrocephalus. When this happens it can actually make your skull swell, (because
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