Hi I'm Mason,

 

 

 Years ago my mom got pregnant with identical twins. The pregnancy was anything but normal from the get-go. When it was too late, we got diagnosed with twin to twin transfusion syndrome- essentially my brother and I were fighting each other for blood, oxygen and nutrients. Because of this, he passed away around 28 weeks from congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema. After he passed, I was able to regain the blood, oxygen and nutrients I needed to survive... but it was already too late. It had caused brain damage or as we know it today….cerebral palsy. Today twin to twin transfusion syndrome is easily fixed with a laser surgery. Fast forward to 36 weeks when I was delivered in the OR by       C-section. After a multitude of months and tests, the doctors told my parents that I would never be able to walk, talk, feed myself or even rollover based on a CT Scan that stated “periventricular leukomalacia”. 
 

     At 1 year of age, I got the “official” diagnosis Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy- which means the lower half of my body will have spastic muscles. From 3 months to 1 years old my muscles were so tight I would just lay in my crib and cry. I started physical and occupational therapy regularly at 18 months. I would get stuck in high chairs at restaurants from being so tight. It would take both of my parents to maneuver my legs and the chair to get me out. If you can envision a “fish out of water” that was me! If you laid me on the floor on my stomach, my arms went straight back and my legs were tight and straight and that's the only position I maintained. At the age of 3yo, my parents felt they had to do “something” and were willing to take that risk so I had what’s called a selective dorsal rhizotomy- what they did is they went into my spinal cord and test nerve roots and if they were spastic they would them cut some of the nerves so my muscles would be able to relax. Of course, they couldn’t cut all the spasticity out or I wouldn’t have function thus the reason it is called “selective”. After this surgery, the battle was on! I went to therapy after therapy. I did home exercises. My parents worked with me on a regular basis and we were going to get stronger and stronger. We were going to walk, talk, rollover and feed myself. It was hard, it was a long journey, challenging beyond what you can imagine. Not only all the therapies and work, but recovering from 15 various surgeries mostly orthopedic. But...I accomplished all of the above and more! Walking wise, I started in a walker and then progressed to 3-prong canes to single tip canes to sometimes even 1 cane. Let me tell you something right now… in case you didn’t read between the lines… I don’t take NO for an answer and I don’t like to be told that I CAN’T do something. It may not be perfect or the way it was “supposed to be done or look like” but it can be done if you want it bad enough through hard work, creativity, persistence, and open-mindness.
 

     Not much happened until I got to High School where I got pulled away from all my friends and demeaned and bullied by staff. I was put in all special ed classes just because I had a disability. Fast forward to my junior year of high school I wanted to go to a vocational school for heavy equipment. My application got accepted but after they found out about my disability I got straight up denied….deemed “unsafe”. I grew up cutting grass on riding lawn mowers to zero turns. I rode atvs and my lifelong dream was to work with heavy equipment! It is a “freedom” to me when I have legs that don’t always cooperate with me. I got depressed, and I mean depressed. I was losing hope and didn’t know where to turn because this is what I REALLY wanted to do. I dried my tears and went on to do what I do best. I did more research, reached out to other people who could possibly help, and I decided that school was not going to tell ME NO!