Hello. My name is Adrienne.
I am 21 years old, an English major getting ready to transfer from a great junior college to San Francisco State University. I was born with my left hand and most of my left forearm missing - what medical journals and studies call "unilateral congenital below elbow deficiency". In my readings, it was presented that UCBED is most common on the left side and in females (that's me), though it is certainly not confined to that demographic. They don't know why it happens. The doctors told my mom it was her fibroid tumors to present an explanation, but they really had no idea, and neither does anyone else.
I've never seen myself as different or other, but I know that some in the world see me, and others like me, as such, even calling us "disabled". My life does not revolve around thoughts about my arm, but it is a fact of my life, and I was looking for a place online to see what other grown people with UCBED were experiencing, and all I found was a disturbing amount of parents feeling bad about or for their UCBED children, or medical studies. I wanted to put an adult, adjusted face on this community, if it's out there.
I will be updating this blog with the few and far between anecdotes of my life with no left hand. Please feel free to join in and ask questions, or comment with your own experiences. I'm happy to hear from you!
