My youngest daughter was born 4 1/2 months premature. They sent her home from the hospital when she was 2 weeks old and weighed less than 2 pounds because they couldn't do anything more for her and expected her to die soon.
That was 30 years ago.
This year, for her birthday, she's taking a vacation to Austin, TX.
Because she was recently diagnosed with vampirism, she'll have to take special precautions.
I know, I know, it's not really "vampirism", it's an allergy to the sun.
She has a number of metabolic issues due to her prematurity - benign hypermobility syndrome, hypothyroid, lupus, a variety of allergies, which now includes the sun.
So far, after 20 years of treatment, her thyroid issues are still not under control, and that contributes to a lot of her other health issues.
And the latest is this sun allergy.
Fortunately, the prognosis for a sun allergy is pretty good. It's annoying, but there are plenty of things we can do to make it easier and better.
We're converting her wardrobe to all natural fibers because Rit makes a laundry additive that blocks the sun, but it only works on natural fibers.
She has several pretty parasols and now carries them to block the sun, in addition to wearing sun block even when she sits in the sunlight near a window.
I've made her some skin lotions of calendula, aloe vera, bachelor buttons, and colloidal oatmeal that will hopefully prevent her skin from thickening and scarring as a result of the rashes she gets.
When we confirmed the allergy, her first words were, "I like reading about vampires, I never expected to become one!"