My name is Connor Rumbley. I am 15 years old but look and act younger. I have Neurofibromatosis 1. I have had it all my life. It was discovered when I was 11 months old. My one-year-old sister pushed me off the toddler bed, and I broke my left leg. That is how everyone found out I had this disease. No one had ever heard of NF. The leg I broke was already curved, supposedly because there was no room inside Mom, and my parents were told that it would straighten itself out as I grew. After breaking my leg, the doctor said it was curved from NF1, not from growing in Mom, and confirmed it from looking me over. I had café au lait spots - brown, coffee-colored spots on my body that looked like big birthmarks.

The bone was no good; it would have kept curving. They let it heal and then eventually did surgery on my leg. I have had two or three leg surgeries and have to wear a brace all the time just to protect it. I go without it some weekends if it is rubbing my skin the wrong way. As I grew older, I had scoliosis, another sign of NF1. I had to have back surgery two years ago to straighten that. I have ADHD and optic gliomas too. I have to see doctors all the time. I struggle in the 10th grade and always need help getting the work done because I do not understand it. I am on an IEP.

Otherwise, I am like any other kid or teen. I like art class and drawing scary things - monsters, zombies, and original characters I create. I love playing board games like Monopoly. I love swimming and playing outside in the summer. I like playing tablet or phone games. When I grow up, I want to be an archaeologist or paleontologist, to dig and study dinosaurs.