Spina bifida is a SPECTRUM disease.

Now when I think of spectrum, I tend to think of rainbows.  Why?  Because when white light is refracted it splits and disperses into all the colors of the spectrum – a rainbow.

I really really like rainbows.  After a rain, I always look for the rainbow.  🙂

But how does this define spina bifida as being a spectrum disease?  Well, if ‘spina bifida’ is like the white light, when it touches a human being, it reveals itself in so many color patterns … and all of them different.  If the color orange, for example, represents normal pressure of the CSF fluid in the brain and spinal cord, then absence of that color means you have hydrocephalus.   (I wish Amanda had that color.)  And if blue represents the ability to walk, well there are lots of spina bifida people who can walk – they have lots of blue in their rainbow!  No blue means they can’t walk.  So even though you may know someone with spina bifida that walks and works at a regular job – well they have got a different array of colors (symptoms) then someone else with spina bifida.

People with spina bifida are born with their own rainbows.  Sometimes, colors are missing or the spectrum of colors (abilities) is arranged a bit different.

It’s okay.  All people have abilities and deficits that set them apart from one another and make them unique.  Maybe that’s what they mean when people talk about ‘showing your true colors’ – showing people what you DO have.

The impressive thing about spina bifida people is that, even though they are born with a different color palate, it rarely stops them.  They tend to take what they CAN do – work with the colors they have – and make the very best of it.

(Yeah – I get angry when I see colors missing from Amanda’s rainbow – darn that spina bifida – but she still has lots of colors!)

So, spina bifida or not, we all need to be the best we can be with what God has blessed us with.

I never saw a rainbow I didn’t like.  They’re all beautiful.

Just Laurel