I named all my organs
Meg: I named all my organs! Sid the stomach, Sally the spleen (and I actually have a very weird coincidence why I named it Sid, I’ll tell you after!), Isabella the intestine, Padma the pancreas, and Leon the liver. And I named my stomach Sid because there’s this horrible kiddie show that I used to have to watch all the time when there was nothing else on TV and I could only watch TV. It was awful! It was called Sid the Science Kid, and they were like, “1+1 is 2!” and “Why does air blow?”
Mom: I never realized that’s why you named him!
Meg: It was really boring and I hated it so much that I decided to mock my stomach!
Mom: Well, and your stomach had not always been your best friend.
Meg: Yes! So that’s another reason why I did it.
Mom: You’re funny!
Meg, 9, and mother
The best thing is being able to eat!
Mom: Now Meg is not on formula at all anymore. She eats completely, she gets all her calories by mouth, and her stomach totally tolerates anything that she wants to eat, she doesn’t have any food restrictions.
Meg: Except for grapefruit.
Mom: Right, all transplant patients can’t eat grapefruit.
Meg: But people say I’m not missing out on much.
Meg, 9, and mother
A pretty normal life
I just went on the second cross country trip with my school and I hiked the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains, and was totally fine, totally healthy. So I mean, I do lead a pretty much normal, normal life.
I remember a nurse once said to my dad, “Well, she’ll never be able to go in the ocean,” because I had a central line and a bunch of other stuff. And she was like, “Oh, she’ll never be able to swim.” And I’ve surfed in Hawaii, I’ve gone white water rafting – I’ll hopefully be a lifeguard this summer, I just finished getting my lifeguard certification. And my dad is always tempted to take a picture of me surfing or doing something and send it to that nurse!
Katie, 19
A healthy person
I’ve lived with it my whole life, I will live with it my whole life, and I’m a fully healthy person. I love outdoor recreation, I love camping, backpacking, rock climbing, stuff like that. And you know, it doesn’t impact my life that much. So I think if something happens, knock on wood, I will deal with it when it comes, but I’m really not too concerned.
Katie, 19
Scars
I won’t wear bikinis. I will wear single piece suits. I don’t like wearing anything tight because my stomach is a little bumpy from the scars; I don’t really like to wear anything tight that makes that apparent. I have wanted plastic surgery for a while…I’m still deciding whether or not I would want that. In theory I would like it, but I really think I wouldn’t when it came down to it. I wouldn’t be able to because it’s a part of me, it’s part of who I am, and I’m not ashamed of them, I just don’t want to present that to the world. So only time will tell, I don’t really know…
Katie, 19