What I am about to share with you, I am not entirely sure what is true, but this is the story of my birth, from which my mother use to tell me. I remember like it was yesterday....
The date was the 22nd of April, in 1988. My mother, believe it or not, was pregnant with me. She was taken to hospital so I could pop out, but I decided to stay in there, because I like chillin' out. So after my mum returned home, I then thought, "Ay, now would be a good time to see what all the fuss is about" so an ambulance was rushed out to rush my mum back into hospital.
I was so excited, I was about to see the big world, in fact, I was so excited I couldn't hold it in anymore, I just had to come out. Realising this, the ambulance pulled over on the side of the road, on a "can-be-busy-at-times-but-on-a-rare-occasion-it-actually-is" highway. The ambulance driver delivered my mum her 5th child, and I was presented to the world.
You might think, "Wow, what an exciting story, you will cherish that!" If only, for you see, that was only the beginning of the longest 12 months of my life, and my family's life. After reaching Corowa via ambulance, the doctors noticed something was not right about me, I appear to be of blue colour, so for precaution they took me to the Albury hospital. From there the doctors ordered in a helicopter to fly me to Melbourne, as it appears something was terribly wrong with me.
I don't remember much from this time, only a few hazing memories but... Well, to be honest, I don't remember any of it, but my mum told me after they assessed me, I went straight under the knife, I needed to have open heart surgery in order to save my life.
My mum use to tell me I was born with my veins around the wrong way, a hole in the heart and some closed heart arteries, which restricted the amount of blood flow around my body. So with these conditions, operations were needed quickly. After the operation, the next 6 months I basically lived at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, under going treatments and check-ups. Then one day the doctors told my mum the worst thing a parent could hear....
"Take your son home and love him as much as you can, as he won't make it to age 1"
I was given only one year to live by the doctors, and well, we all know how it all turned out, as I am here typing this story to you. If my heart condition wasn't enough, they decided to give me a wobbly spine as well, also known as scoliosis, which didn't really affected me.
Most of my childhood, up to about 14, I would have to go to Melbourne twice a year for a check-up, to make sure things are okay, and when I was 14, I had surgery to open up an artery using a balloon. Now you could imagine how protective a mother would be with her child with my condition, so I was shielded off from the world for a long time, but our trips to Melbourne were fun, which involved going to the zoo, the markets and my favourite, riding the tram!
According to my mum, I also made the record books at the hospital, so that's pretty bad-ass. But not as bad-ass as my scar which was created by my baby-time. I have a scar starting from the top of my chest, right down to my bellybutton, proof that they sliced me right open to operate.
So there is the story of my birth, the way my mum use to tell me, and how much I remembered from the story. 22 years old isn't a bad effort when you are only given a year to live, and now I only need to visit the doctors once a year, just for check-ups and what-not. Hope you enjoy this, one day I will tell the story of my name and how I came about my footy team, which involves the mentioned events.
From The One They Call Anthony, This Is The Life And Times
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