Navigating One Challenge After Another: Grace Grantham

In January of 2024, I opened up this blog to anyone who wanted to share their experiences in navigating life’s challenges. Serena Burman shared her thoughts about love, companionship, and sexuality. Another person shared their thoughts anonymously about love, relationships, and polyamory. Chelsie Guilford allowed me to post something she had written previously about marriage, family life, and polyamory.

Several months later in July of 2024, I posted an article about Grace Grantham’s transparency on Facebook in navigating cerebral palsy, rheumatoid arthritis, disability, and depression. I appreciate that she is so bold in sharing such vulnerable things about her life, and she recently offered to write more about her experiences.

So here she is. This is straight from her…

I was born at Cedars-Sinai near Hollywood, California. I was all set to come out and meet my parents but totally like me, I had to make a change. That week after my mother had her check-up, I flipped. Yes, I decided feet first to add to all the complications that were to come. I should have also been a C-section, but that wouldn’t have made my story as interesting. The doctor never showed up to my birth – I guess a game of golf was way more important. My mother did receive help but by that time, my lungs were clogged. They kicked my dad out of the room and he could only view what was going on through a tiny room. There were no iPhones or FaceTime, so no one really knew what was going on. My aunt had just had my cousin in May and was waiting for my mom and dad to call. When no one in the family or friends had heard anything and they all became concerned. In 1975, my dad was the drummer and a founding member of a band called Poco. When I was finally born, I couldn’t breathe. Mouth-to-mouth, the doctor there literally sucked everything out of my lungs and finally I cried, took in air, and what would be 15 more years of 2-to-3-times-a-week grand mal seizures. In 1975, they didn’t have the knowledge of what was going on. You’d think by then they’d be a little educated. I mean, this was one of the best hospitals. They gave my parents the worst outcome: “If I were you, I’d put this baby in an institution and go on with life.” My parents did the opposite and everything they could to prove the hospital was negligent.

By age 3, I had a walker and wore a helmet because of falling and having seizures. I soon developed my “rebel side” and would push the walker away to walk on my own. I didn’t walk – I ran everywhere (LOL), so I lost two wheels and had rubber stoppers put on my walker instead. Soon the walker went away and I was on my own. I started competing in 60m and 100m races. Running felt like total freedom to me.

When I was almost 16, I had the Achilles tendon lengthened on my right leg. To me, the doctors made it sound like ”I was gonna be normal.” June of my 16th birthday, I was put in a 3-month cast from above my thigh and all the way down. We lived in Florida then, so the summer was most uncomfortable with a cast. When the cast came off, my reality set in and I developed a bad case of depression that I still deal with. I couldn’t run anymore and walking was a struggle. I became a very angry person and never really returned to the same happy person that I was.

As I got older and especially by age 30, moving became more difficult. I first got a scooter to get around, and then eating became a struggle. It was like everything I worked so hard to do on my own was crashing in on me. I soon found out I had rheumatoid arthritis and tons of osteoarthritis in my body. I had just moved up here from Seattle to be by my mother. As strange as it is, while visiting different doctors we both found out we had rheumatoid arthritis. My father had also just had a traumatic stroke and from afar, I was helping care for him and not filling him in on my issues.

I’m 50 now and just found out I have scoliosis. How much can one person take? Believe me, I have moments I want to check out. I have great days, good days, and just okay days. I also have days I don’t dare tell how I really feel, but I keep going.

Thank you, Grace, for your courage in talking about what life has been like.

If you would like to connect with Grace, you can find her on Facebook by clicking here.

Photos by Satya Curcio