Rewriting History: The Incredible "Shrinking" Kids

I found out over Thanksgiving that I wasn't the only one in the family whose medical documentation for height was being rewritten.

I have blogged before about how I was 5'4 1/2 inches in all of my medical records and then a doctor put me at 5'5 inches for height in one of them, saying I was 5'5, not 5'4 1'2. I was 5'5 inches from 2002-2004 or 2004 at least. I was used to writing 5'4 1/2. I always included the 1/2, and then I was measured by a doctor who smiled and said, "5'4 1/2 huh? You're 5'5". Without shoes or socks.

I didn't come up with my own measurements, medical doctors did.

When I moved to Cashmere, Washington, I was very shocked. It was 2005 when Dr. Hughes, an ER doctor at CWH in Wenatchee, smirked and said, "You're not 5'5!!!" and he was so upset over it, he called me a "liar" to my face. He literally said I had lied on my chart (the form you fill out before seeing a doctor). Then, in front of me, he crossed it out, and without measuring me wrote, "5'4".

He was so mad, and it was so important for him to shrink me down an entire inch. I was so shocked, I didn't say one word. He was yelling at me and then acted really weird and triumphant, changing my medical record. None of them measured me. This doctor just arbitrarily changed it and threatened me. I was never measured for height by any doctor after 2004. My last recorded official height, by doctor measurement, was 5'5.

So I found out from my brother, who is 6-6'1 feet, and you look at him and you know, "Yeah, he's at least 6 feet". He was always measuring 6'1 inches, and never less than 6 feet.

He told me when we were talking about things, it came up somehow and he said, "Yeah, for some reason I've been shrinking the last year or year and a 1/2."

For the last year and half.

So suddenly, he has doctors (or doctor) in Washington State, trying to shrink him down too. They are attempting to rewrite his medical records with him at less than 6 feet.

I was 29 years old, and had not "shrunk", and had just been measured at 5'5 inches by an Oregon doctor, until I got to Washington and someone tried to shrink me down a full inch. There was one police officer who then did the same thing with me, without measuring me, and forced me to change my height for my driving record too.

So all of a sudden, I had persons interested in altering and rewriting my personal statistics for my driving record and for my medical record. One even tried to change my eye color. He was attempting to convince me to change my driver's license record of my eyes from "green" to "hazel". They had been documented as "green" since I was a baby.

I saw my brother, and um, he is still over 6 feet tall. I had thought it was strange some were trying to change MY height in 2005, for the first time, and then I guess much later, they even did this with my brother.

I measured myself without shoes after what Dr. Hughes had said. I was 5'5.

Because of being literally threatened by a doctor, I remember I felt pressured to say nothing and to write down what he wanted.

But next time I have my records made, I'm taking it back. I am recording what is true, which is that I am 5'5 inches.

The reason I believe it is important is because something is going on--something fishy is going on, and is wrong. No one would care that much to change my personal history and medical records unless they were attempting to disguise and conceal earlier documentation of me at 5'5 inches, possibly mentioned by someone in writing, in a record. For some reason, it must be that there is a group that didn't want the person refered to, as being 5'5 inches, to be me.

So either it's an internal intelligence record that kept my name anonymous, or it's something else.

No one cares that much, unless it's important to some group to deceive someone(or another group) about who is who, and what their personal information was recorded as.

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Update: 12/14/2012. Yes. I am 5'5". I checked more than a week ago, almost 2 weeks ago, later, out of curiosity. There was a measuring tape someone had given me and I opened up the package and pulled on it and it was only up to 72 inches or something like that. There were no marks for "feet". So I put it against the wall, and markeed from floor up to where it ended, and then placed it on that mark and I stood on a carpet that sinks down a little, and I was objective. I was objective because I didn't automatically compute how many inches meant 5 feet, and what was leftover, and then I did the math and got the 5 feet and then saw what was leftover, "5 inches". I'm 5'5" and from now on, that's what I am putting down on all of my records. I was 5'5" in 2004, and earlier, and I'm still 5'5".

That one doctor who measured me and told me I was 5'5" (in Oregon) was accurate and correct, and the others who harassed me and said I was a "liar" and that they were marking me as 5'4" didn't measure me or base their judgements on whether I had been growing still or not. I still think it's totally bizarre some made such a big deal over it.

(Maybe next time I have a passport photo done, I'll wear blue lipstick too.)

My parents are shorter (My Dad is/was 5'10 or 5'11" and mom is 5'3") but my Dad's Dad and his brothers (except Tom, whose mother was shorter) were all 6 feet or taller. Grandpa Garrett was over 6 feet tall. His wife (biological grandma) Dolores is short and petite, but her brothers are tall. On my mother's side, her Dad was about 5'11" I think (not sure if he was 6 ft. or over) but her mother was like a Belgian Viking (Granny). Granny was 5'8" and her brothers and uncles all over 6 feet, as was her father. All of that Briegenzer stock. Her kids were all taller: Holly (5'8" or maybe a little less), Locklyn (5'6"), Loren (6') and then my mother is the only one who is average or shorter height (5'3"). I remember standing with Erica Wiltbank and comparing our legs and where they started, in high school (before I was finished growing). I was measuring 5'4 1/2" then and she was about 5'6"-5'8". Our waistlines were pretty much the same height. Our legs were about the same length but she had longer calves and I had longer thighs. I remember thinking I wished my calves were longer. Anyway. I'm 5'5" now and I was 5'5" in 2004 too.

Also, thank you to the woman who gave me that measuring tape, if she ever reads this. I don't think she will because this is sort of a hidden update and not made into a big notice, but if she does read this, it was very thoughtful, came in handy, and thank you again.