My name is Rania. I will be 40 in January. When I was seven years old, I lived in Sturgeon, MO. There was a chemical spill on the RR tracks 3 blocks from my house. My mother was extremely young, raising me, my six yr old sister, and one yr old brother by herself. Turns out the chemical that was flowing freely was DIOXIN. At the time, and for years, I just thought ok, it happened. Right after I turned 13, almost to the day, I got my first period. About a year later, my step-father announced at the dinner table (after I had stayed home sick that day) that he didn’t care - my sister or I (who is only 20 months younger than me) were not allowed to stay home for "female problems" because it was just an excuse! Also, by the time we started our periods, my mother had already had a hysterectomy because when she went to have her tubes tied when she was 26 yrs old, they found abnormal cells, so they did a complete hysterectomy just in case. So, although my mother and I were very close, … [Read more...]
