Junior Year

I'm back at school. Let's just say this is definitely a different experience after being home for so long and no making a total change in life. It is very different with a lot of my closest friends not here. But I am glad that they are all following what feels right for them and doing what they want to do.

I plan to post my adventures and random times at school on here :)

My Story

It was November 6th 1988 in Los Angeles, California, it was the day that my parents held their new precious daughter. Their only wish was to have a healthy baby, and although things did not go as well as they hoped they still had their unconditional love for their new baby Carlee June. I was born with a Vascular Malformation or a type of Birthmark which covers my face and a portion of my chest. My face was also troubled with a drooping left eye as well as the left side of my lips. Other than that I was a healthy baby, but my facial problems caused more trouble my first year than anyone would have guessed. A few days after my birth my pediatrician noticed a murmur in my heart, where they then found that I had an enlarged heart which was causing other problems to my body. I was confirmed to having an AV abnormality, which is a tangle of thin walled vessels. It was causing blood to come back to my heart at too fast a rate. Doctors were concerned about this hole that was in my heart so at three weeks of age I was admitted to UCLA hospital, which is where a majority of my surgeries have taken place, where they were able to clips of the major artery to the affected area on my heart. Then then made an incision in my temple area and placed a metal clip on the artery. The doctors came out the surgery telling my worried parents that it was, "better than we could have hoped for." The next few weeks were spent in the hospital as I was recovering from this major head and heart operation. I was able to spent Christmas with my family in my bandages :) The next few years were spent in and out of hospitals, waiting rooms, MRI's, embolizations, and anythine else than had to do with doctors. It was hard as I faced school and the real world. My younger sister and I are really close in age so she always stood up for me as I had to deal with questions like "Did you color on your face?" or "Is that sunburn?" My sister always made sure than I was okay, and i will never be able to thank her enough for her kindness and bravery. Being Mormon or a Latter Day Saint I was thankful for the Church in my life and being able to know that this trail I was faced with was something that I had asked for and needed to get through in order to reach my fullest potential. Finally at the age of ten I met a doctor that had high hopes for correcting my face so my father gave me a blessing to prepare me for this major operation that would correct my uneven lips. They were able to flip my lips which cause a lot of stiches, pain, and discomfort but after two weeks of having my lips stiched together I was able to finally to talk, eat, and breathe normally again. However that night I tore my skin and landed myself in the hospital once again as the bleeding would not stop. Luckily the doctors were able to help my lips and I was once again released to go home. More accidents seemed to follow that next summer. My family and I had traveled to Utah to another family reunion. We were at 800 North and 800 East. As we headed down this busy intersection we came to a fast stop as the car in front of us braked really fast, and worried about what the driver would do behind us I turned around to check and see then all of the sudden there was a huge semi truck that slammed into the back of our mini van, which ejected my like a bullet into my mom's driver seat, landing me unconcious and breaking my nose. I woke up in a unfamilar setting trying to figure out where I was, then realizing I had been knocked out. My uncle who was paramedic there, was able to help get me in a better condition before I was admitted. I was able to return home and my nose was able to heal. The following year when I was about eleven I was able to correct my nose after this tragic accident. I needed to grow my skin for my nose so I had expanders put in my forehead. Each week I had to go to my doctor's office and have saline injected to my forehead. Then a month later they removed the skin expanders and used it to overlap the skin on my nose. After seeing that this doctor didn't have much more to offer for my face, I was able to find Dr. Henry Kawamoto. He had just worked on the separation of the Guatemalan twins, and at the end of 2001 realized that he would be just the help that I needed. Back to the real world, I was busy trying to express myself with dance. I had been dancing since I was four years old, and my dance instructor was a very good friend of my friend and I. She decided that she wanted to do something for me since she had seen me struggle with my face, so she talked to my surgeon and decided to help their non-profit organization Facing Forward which I was involved in for many years. She and I were interviewed for the paper and my story and pictures made the front page of many local papers. We raised over ten thousand dollars for my doctor's organization it was one of the greatest experiences I had ever taken part in. Dr. Kawamoto spent the next few helping straighten out my scars, lips, and nose. He was also able to move out my chin and make my face have a better alignment. Facing Forward then decided to do a benefit to help needy children with facial malformations. I participated in a fashion show, at the Ritz Carlton in Beverly Hills where I was given a designer dress, recorded a voiceover, and got to walk down a runway with a group of professional models. I felt so on top of the world as everyone stood and gave me a standing ovation. I was able to meet many stars at the event, but was thankful for all of the money that was raised for these needy children. Over the next five years up till now, I have continued to go to my same surgeron to get operations done to correct my face and can never thank him and their team enough for all of the help that I have gotten. I am so thankful for all of the help from my parents, family, friends, and the church that has always stood by me. I am now able to look in the mirror and love me for ME!

Thanks for reading I would never be where I am today without you! :)

The Author

Hi I'm Carlee and a big fan of facebook and such types of blogs and websites in which people can come and read about my posts. I am hoping that this can be a way for me to place my thoughts and feelings as well as for you to be able to get to know me more and see what i am involved in. Enjoy learning more about me :)