We recently had the chance to connect with Maddie Teagarden and have shared our conversation below.
Maddie, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
The first 90 minutes of my day are always doing my medical care. Honestly medical care takes up most of my day especially the past year and half because even more stuff has been added to my daily care than what I was even dealing with most of my life (which has always been a lot). My mom helps take care of me so I’m lucky to have the extra support to get everything done. I am still able to enjoy things in my life and do things though. I just really need to adapt around my medical care and do lots of planning ahead of time. It’s a lot and I think most people would be extremely overwhelmed and I’m not too sure how well most people could handle it. But for me it’s just stuff I know needs to get done and it’s what keeps me healthy and keep my body going!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello! I’m Maddie Teagarden or @mad_tea_party97 on all my social media! I turned 28 years old on August 13th. I was born in and have lived just south of Denver my whole life with my family. I’m one of 5 kids and I’m the second youngest. I am an aspiring model, an online content creator and advocate. The catch to my modeling is I am a physically disabled wheelchair user and double amputee which is also why I consider myself an advocate for the disabled community. I was born with a rare spinal defect called Caudal Regression Syndrome, another name for it is Sacral Agenesis. This condition essentially means my spine stopped developing while my mom was pregnant with me which then caused my body from where my spine ends and down to be deformed especially my legs. When I was born my legs were twisted around and bent up stuck by my ears, so when I was a baby I had surgery to help them but the surgeons were unable to make them “perfect” so my feet were twisted sideways, couldn’t bend so they stuck out and they were very underdeveloped so my feet were very tiny. Eventually as I was getting older they were still growing and getting longer even though they were still underdeveloped and they became a major burden on me. They were getting in the way of living my life. Sitting in the car my legs were beginning to not fit but the last straw was being put in the last row of an airplane for a 4 hour flight and needing to stand the entire time because there was no way I could sit in the seat with my legs the way they were. After that trip I went to see my orthopedic surgeon to see if there was absolutely anything she could do to make my legs bend she said she could try but eventually they would stiffen back out again and I would need that surgery multiple times throughout my life. Then and there at 10 years old I told her to “just cut them off then!” which shocked my mom and doctor but I went to therapy for 6 months to make sure I understood the decision I was making and made sure I could mentally handle it. I got cleared by the psychiatrist and had the surgery the summer before my 11th birthday. It was the best decision on my life and I have never once regretted it! My parents were also very good at allowing me to be included in making my own medical decisions from when I was 6 years old. My first major medical decision I made on my own was when I was 8 years old and chose to get my colostomy put in. The doctors suggested that one and my parents and doctor explained it to me and let me have the final say! My condition has also caused many health issues with my bladder, bowels, stomach, nerves, and uterus. I have many stomas as you can see in some of the photos. As of today I have had 107 surgeries. So I’ve been through a lot in my life. When I was 13 until 16 I lived with severe chronic pain. Those 3 years I lived in bed and was on heavy pain medications until we found doctors to agree to do a surgery I needed to fix what was causing my pain. Unfortunately because I spent so much time laying in bed and my stomach was laying on a major artery, I developed a stomach condition called Gastroparesis which means my stomach is paralyzed and my body can’t digest food on it’s own. I could only eat apple sauce and oatmeal and got a GJTube placed in my already existing GTube stoma and began having tube feeds through the Jejunal tube. I saw my GI doctor and he knew of an experimental gastric pacemaker that he wanted to try placing in me to see if shocking my stomach and bowels could get them to contract and digest my food. For about 5 and a half years I had it and it worked amazingly I could eat whatever I wanted with it! But in 2020 it became infected and had to be taken out. I had a very large open wound and needed a wound vac and IV antibiotics until I was all healed up by spring 2021 and was able to get a new one put back in. I had that one for another 3 years and it worked great again. Until February of 2024, I developed another infection and I was no longer able to see my previous GI doctor. So I scrambled to find a doctor that knew how to care for patients with gastric pacemakers and we found the only one who was local and went to see him. He was not prepared for such a complex patient and was in for a rude awakening when he opened me up and saw all the scar tissue and stomas on my belly. He ripped the pacer out, left the wires and refused to see me after the surgery. I didn’t see him once the whole 2 weeks I was in patient until I was walking out the door and he then told me he won’t be seeing me again. Not even a post-op appointment which is very standard after major surgeries. I was confused and heartbroken. The only reason I agreed so quickly to having the pacemaker taken out so soon was because at my first appointment he had told me he would work with me to figure out another way to make sure I could eat normal solid foods again but then he chickened out and refused to ever see me again. So I am now not able to eat solid foods anymore and am on 24/7 tube feeds. After a year, in February 2025, I was able to find another doctor that handles gastric pacemakers and he agreed to attempt to put a new gastric pacemaker in despite of the two infections. He warned me there was a chance it wouldn’t work with how complex I am, I don’t have much room on my stomach for it to be placed besides the same spot it was already in due to stomas and even in the spot it was previously in there will be a lot of scar tissue. So he did the surgery in March but in was unsuccessful. He was digging through removing all the scar tissue and saw my stomach, bowels and liver were all fused together so he was separating those. After 4 hours straight of doing that, he decided to stop and just couldn’t put the pacemaker in without risking destroying any of my other healthy stomas. I was absolutely heartbroken and upset waking up from surgery to that news and in so much pain, it felt like it was all for nothing. I had so many plans of all the food I was finally going to eat. It has taken a major toll on my mental health. It sounds silly to say with everything I’ve gone through in my life, not eating was the thing that sent me over the edge but eating and food is a major part of people’s social lives, our enjoyments in life, and our entire lives are scheduled around when we need to eat. But I’m still going to keep my head up and try to look on the bright side like I always do! Technology advances so incredibly quickly. So who knows what could possibly be developed in the future that could help me or people like me with Gastroparesis who struggle with tolerating and digesting food! My goals are really just to share my story and share everything I go through to hopefully help other people! I also dream of being a successful model because for me growing up I NEVER saw anyone like me in media and I want to be that representation for young kids that see themselves in me!
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
My earliest memory of feeling powerful was definitely those times I got to make my own medical decisions and chose things that I truly believed would help with my independence that also helped nurture my confidence. And after I saw how those decisions affected my life it really affirmed to me that I truly know what’s best for myself and I need to stand my ground and stick up for what I need despite what anyone else thinks.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
I feel like when I was young my parents and family really encouraged me to accept, embrace and love my disability and the hard things I go through. They always taught me that these things make me who I am and that’s an amazing strong confident and funny person. They also showed me I could use what I go through to help others around me. To share my story because you never know how impactful it can be and become a positive influence on other people.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
I think a lot of people assume I am much more confident than I really am. Don’t get me wrong I love my disability and embrace it and wouldn’t change my life. But I am human and have my insecurities too. There are days I’m so incredibly insecure and have my moments. But I try to change that around on my social media because I know it can really help my mood and possibly help someone else embrace themselves.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I think people do and will misunderstand my strength. I’m not inspirational for doing normal mundane things everyone needs to do. I’m not here to inspire you for doing normal everyday things that everyone does. I want to be inspirational for the things I’ve gone through, survived and accomplished despite my circumstances.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mad_tea_party97/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzGLhAKBiHWiEIYlK_in8Yw?view_as=subscriber
- Other: TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@mad_tea_party97?_t=ZP-8yL9MD9VkYo&_r=1
Image Credits
Elle Blom from Elle Photography
