Excite Bike
Ever since I can remember I have never been fairly impatient. I hate waiting and always have. This probably explains why I was born 6 weeks early. My mom says as a baby she never had to wait for me to wake up to get the day started, she would come into my room and I would be wide awake and as I got older trying to get out.
My impatience also extends to waiting on my body to heal, I don’t like to take it easy and I don’t like to be victim to any sort of illness. This is pretty funny since I was a sick kid, but being a sick kid was not a bad thing since I was a Sick Kid – a child patient of sick kids hospital.
When I jumped the gun in coming out of the womb it meant I wasn’t quite done yet so I was placed in an easy bake oven (incubator) until it went ding. I was such an unattractive baby that to this day I have not seen any pictures of me prior to my actual due date (Dec 16th).
Soon after I was born I came down with a serious case of pneumonia, serious enough that my pediatrictian told my parents were told not to travel to Jamaica with me. However my parents figuring they could deal with whatever happened decided to go anyway. The story goes once I got to Jamaica I made an immediate recovery and became a huge ball of energy. Even at a young age their was no way I was letting a little cold keep me from having fun in the sun.
My health was pretty stable until around the age of four until my parents and day care workers noticed I developed a limp. When my parents tried to ask me what was wrong apparently I couldn’t really explain it. While everyone was pretty worried being four I was unconerned. So they just watched to see if the limp got worse, which it did. It turned out I was developing an urinary tract infection due to a UPJ (Ureteropelvic junction) obstruction and I needed surgery, fairly important surgery, since one of the complications of a UPJ obstruction is losing a kidney.
So I went under the knife, and a lot of my friends have seen the scar.
On my way to the operating room seeing the games room at Sick Kids and wanting to go in there. I had to stay in the hospital for about 9 days under observation and for seven of those days I made my way down to the games room IV pole, catheter, stent and all to play ExciteBike.
The IV meant that my hand was heavily bandaged so I wedged the controller between my leg and the arm of the chair. I played hours of Excite Bike and this not only sparked my love for video games but also my love for bikes on dirt tracks.
Soon after release I was diagnosed with fairly severe asthma. Most kids with asthma are forced to take it easy lucky for me though my parents purchased a breathing machine I could use at home to cut back on the amount of time they spent in hospital cots. While I still logged quite a few hours on this machine in front of the TV and still had to carry a puffer (yes I was that kid) it was way better than the alternative.
As I got older, thankfully, I got healthier, and aside from incident where I urinated blood (complication of my operation), I have been health issue free.
I am however left with an everlasting love for Excite Bike
Tags: Asthma, Credit Valley Hospital, Excite Bike, Sick Kids Hospital, UPJ obstruction
