the
reporter
Paola High School • 401 N. Angela • Paola, KS 66071
Rolling in the dough
4 (news)
February 2012
Tips from the field
8-9 (features)
Under the exterior St u d e nt s ove rco m e adversity to carry on aly johnson reporter
Cerrica Bowlin: junior When her mom went in for her eightweek prenatal checkup, Bowlin’s heartbeat stopped and then restarted. Nine months after she was born, Bowlin got her first CT scan. When she was less than 1-year old, Bowlin was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. According to WebMD, cerebral palsy is a broad term used to describe a series of chronic disorders that impair control of movement due to damage to the developing brain. Since her diagnosis, Bowlin has had to endure more than 20 surgeries, some of which include denervation injection surgery, femural rotation surgery, plastic surgery and Botox. Even after experiencing those, she doesn’t complain about the pain. “I just bit the bullet,” Bowlin said. “When I had surgery on my left leg I was off my pain medicine after two weeks. On my right leg, two days.” Bowlin said there have been many different periods in her life where she has had to use a walker. One of the major downsides to that, she said, were the countless stares she received and the looks of ‘oh my gosh’. “At first I didn’t like going out in public because people would stare,” Bowlin said. “I’d have my insecure moments, but then I’d have my moments like ‘screw them’.” Bowlin feels that she has been able to compensate for her physical handicap. “I’ve built myself mentally to hide my physical disability,” Bowlin said. “I’d rather be smart with this disability than dumb without it.” Bowlin said that whenever she tells people that she has cerebral palsy, they always say ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry’, to which she responds ‘I’m not.’ “I wouldn’t be me without CP,” Bowlin said.
Jane*
In eighth grade, Jane was diagnosed with a mood disorder associated with depression and an anxiety disorder. “The emotional aspect was unforgettable,” Jane said. “I blocked
out pretty much all of the memories of middle school.” In her eighth grade year especially, Jane said that she felt like some people looked down on her because of her disorder. “I was kind of a weird duck and I was drawn from everyone, so most people were like ‘what the heck is wrong with her?’” Jane said. Jane said this disorder causes her to feel extremely self-conscious all the time and that she has to focus more than she should to stay positive and avoid stressing about things that she said shouldn’t be stressed about in the first place. “If I have too much time to myself I can feel it start to taunt me and the anxiety starts coming back like it used to,” Jane said. “It’s just something I worry about because I’m afraid it might relapse.” Jane said that her disorder is currently only consuming about five percent of her life. She said that she is able to live normally now, but that her disorder will be a part of her forever. *Name has been changed at the discretion of the Reporter staff
Jessica Wright: freshman
Shortly after Christmas 2010, Jessica started to notice severe swelling in her stomach and legs. “I just thought it was because I’d been eating too many sweets,” Jessica said. But it turned out to be much more serious. On Dec 30, Jessica found out she had lupus, which according to WebMD is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s natural defense system attacks its own tissues instead of attacking things like bacteria and viruses, which leads to swelling, pain, and tissue damage. Jessica’s mom, Wendy Wright, said that Jessica’s diagnosis came as a shock to them. “We were shocked and extremely frightened,” Wendy said. “Her lupus presented with kidney failure, which was terrifying to a parent. In addition, her initial medications did not work, and she only got worse.” In the first few months following her diagnosis, Jessica said she was taking
Forensics season starts
11 (arts) ADHD:
• 52 million
children between the age of 3-17 have been diagnosed with ADHD.
Athletes follow in footsteps
13 (sports) Anxiety:
• 5.9% of 13-18 year olds have “severe” anxiety disorder.
•40% of kids with
ADHD also have a parent with ADHD.
Depression:
• Of all children and
teens struggling with depression,
only 30%
recieve any sort of
intervention or treatment.
• 15% of teens with depression eventually develop biopolar
disorder.
•B e t w e e n 1 0
and 15%
of teens have some symptoms of depression at any one time.
• 30% of teens with depression also develop a
substance abuse problem.
Photo Illustration by Rosalyn Lucas Information from the AAAAI, ADAA, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Youth Network, National Institute of Mental Health, and Department of Mental Health websites.
up to 20 pills per day to keep her lupus under control, but now that number has been reduced to five pills a day. Jessica also said she has to go to the doctor every few months to get various tests done and she has to get her blood drawn about once a month. One of the biggest struggles for Jessica was the weight gain that happened because of her kidney failures.
Bipolar Disorder:
•As many as 1 in • Up to one third
5
patients with bipolar disorder completes suicide.
of adolescent with depression in the U.S. may actually be experiencing the early onset of bipolar disorder.
Substance Abuse:
•I n 2 0 0 8 , a n estimated 22.2 million people
aged 12 or older were classified with substance dependence or abuse in the past year.
Asthma:
•9 million U.S.
children under 18 have been diagnosed with asthma at some period in their lifetime.
Eating •Disorders:
It’s estimated that
8 million
Americans have an eating disorder.
•
Anorexia is the 3rd most common chronic illness among adolescents.
“When your kidneys shut down, you gain a lot in water weight, so I got a lot of big stretch marks from that, and they make me feel insecure sometimes,” Jessica said. Jessica said that another hardship caused by her lupus came while running track last year. “I always felt really bad and behind everyone,”
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