Your stories guide lines. Please read before posting in this section!! Thank You

[hankbartenbach]

Hi everybody,

Welcome to the newest section of the board. Here we have a section reserved just for your stories that are related to Vascular Birthmarks, and for parents to see how adults have delt with growing with a VB.

You can reply to a story, but if the replies get off track from the orignal story, I will move the post to the other group in this section.

Remember you can always update your post (story) with out repling to it. Just click on edit.

Thank you, and am looking forward to hearing your stories.

Hank

[eprmo]

Hank,

I think this a great idea, and I think this is so therapeutic for the people writing it, and the "parents" and "teens" reading it as well.

Elissa

[hankbartenbach]

Your right Elissa,

I emailed to Linda and Missy about this and Linda loved the idea. It will be interesting to see what responses we have on it.

Talk to you later.

Hank

[Nicolefila]

I also think this is a great idea. I would tell my story only it's so long it would take up about 3 pages.

[carol22]

Here is my story,
I thought I was born with my PWS, now reading this could it have grown so large over the years. My PWS is all on one arm, most of my face,chest, and back. It was very painful to grow up with this. I wish to God my parents had my PWS treated as a kid. As an adult I have gone through 3years of treatments. I do have to say, I'm wearing less make-up now, but I still wont leave the house without make-up. So lets be real abouit PWS they are horrable and ugly. They should be treated as early as possible. Sure beauty comes from the inside? Or does it. Not so when people see your PWS first.

[anaana]

My story was inspired by God, because he created me as a different person. The God decided to embellish the half of my face with a big, big red birthmark. Can you imagine how difficult it was to live with an ugly face in our society and how difficult it was for me to become a model? Yes, you heard right, now I am a model, my photos are at the exhibition of the most beautiful girls of my country. But I am not sure that any of the photographers knows that I am with a congenital defect. Thus, I begin my confession, my story of inspiration.


When I was a girl at the age of seven, I got used to intrusive gazes, but nobody had ever mocked at me before. Fortunately, soon I was able to experience such a feeling of humiliation. I want to mention here, that pupils were very happy to invent new funny jokes about me so it led me to join karate trainings. And all my dreams became true soon, all these boys and girls became my friends and nobody had ever touched me again. After eleven years I passed exam of black belt and my examiner was the chief instructor of Shotokan Karate-Do Mr. Hitoshi Kasuya.


But why did I turn into a beautiful girl and how did I do that? - Hormones. I was fifteen and i had never even kissed a boy. Of course, who wants to kiss an ugly girl, even if she is a sportswoman and one of the best students at lyceum? And something unbelievable happened in my life. I found a solution. I read a book about a subconscious power of our brain. Every night before the sleep I began to repeat the same sentence “I have no birthmark, I am beautiful”. I really had hopes to wake up one day a pretty girl, but frankly speaking it was a waste of time.

In short, I bought a good foundation makeup and in 5 minutes I was like a Hollywood star with soft skin and I did not need meditation anymore. Actually, I will never forget that day full of real boundless happiness, caused by admiration of men. They looked at a nice tall girl with long hair, blue eyes, inflated body and long legs. It was amazing!!! But I did not hear their compliments; I heard only one question in my head:” Why has nobody seen my long hair and blue eyes before?”

Soon a group of professional photographers offered me a place of their collection for exhibition of the most beautiful girls in my country. They took a lot of portrait photos. Can you imagine what I was feeling when I stood near my big photo and saw people who admired it? I was thinking about all those bad depressed moments in my life, about people who laughed at me and I was grateful to them for my strength.


Hereby, my birthmark was my inspiration to do my best in this life. Moreover, my defect is still my inspiration that is why I am writing a book for disabled people, who are oppressed by their fate. I want them to overcome it, because I know how it hurts and how they suffer from their defects. That is why I have done my utmost to be accepted to UK university (Business and Management), because I want to help people like me. I am eager to organize a good foundation for them, to feel yourself normal and to guide them to succeed in life, because the life is so wonderful. Sometimes we do not see it because of some "barriers"!

It is my story of inspiration, which is not finished.