Review: TRUE STORY
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 12, 2013
Kerri-Anne Weston was 17, a new high school graduate looking forward to a summer as a lifeguard on the ocean when she lost the use of her legs. It all started with a pain in her lower back. To scare her even worse, her parents weren't home but a neighbor lady went to bat for her.At first the doctors couldn't explain why she couldn't walk. They came up with a fancy sounding name, but said it usually started with a fever. Kerri didn't have a fever. Sounded suspicious to me.But suspicious or not, the young lady found herself transferred to the spinal unit of a much larger hospital. Her first roommate died. She had better luck with some of her future ones.Physical therapy was a daily event. After several months, she began bladder training. Did you know that people who are quadriplegics are still able to control their bladders? That was a new one on me. Bladder training was extremely important; if you had conquered your bladder training, you were allowed to go home for the weekend.Kerri felt it took her longer than anyone to train her bladder. She had ALMOST conquered it when she was recruited to swim for the Paraplegic Games, a step toward the Paraplegic Olympics. Since she hadn't finished pee training, she swam with a pee bag. And I'll let you read the book to see how well she did.I will tell you that she qualified for nationals to be held in England, so she worked harder to get rid of the pee bag AND now found herself on a training schedule for her trip to the National Olympics.As a young woman she was also interested in young men and several of them were interested in her. She discusses her love life quite honestly, and often has her heart broken.Often, but not always. This story has a happy ending with pictures to prove it.Kerri-Anne talks surgery, a diet that nearly disqualified her from the competition she loved so much, learning to play sports on a man's team because there was no woman's team and the man who made her life complete.This is a story written about a young woman who loses her faith, then finds it again. It is a long book. I think it's perfect for a young adult l.