“‘We witnessed a little girl in a purple wheelchair being shaken and yelled at.’ That little girl was Melissa. Sometimes life leads you in the right direction at the right time.”
‘The doctor said, ‘If you buy a toaster and it’s smashed, you know it won’t work.’ We were SPEECHLESS. We had to find a new ‘normal.’: Daughter born with Microcephaly, ‘She’s made AMAZING progress’
‘Baby is out.’ Silence. ‘I can’t hear her crying,’ I said, right before I passed out. ‘Your wife could die.’: Mom and NICU baby beat the odds, ‘I don’t want other Black moms to become ‘statistics’
“I slid my finger into her tiny hand, and told her how loved she was. Slowly, her fingers started to curl around mine. ‘Oh my God, she’s breathing!’”
‘The neurologist called. ‘I’m 90% sure your son has Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation. Do not google it.’: Special needs mom urges, ‘Life can be beautiful, even when it doesn’t go as planned’
“Christopher is 7 years old and cannot sit on his own without falling over. He can’t walk and uses a wheelchair. He hasn’t had food orally for over 5 years, and is fed with a GJ tube. He has never told me he loves me, or said a single word. And I have learned that even without words, his story is going to be a beautiful one.”
‘Oh no, that’s not good!’ My legs were pins and needles. Paramedics surrounded. I was left confused and broke.’: Woman battling MS urges ‘never give up on fighting for your health’
“It was hard for me to focus, understand new material, or even remember what I did the day before. It took me an hour to read 10 pages. Everything I thought I knew how to do, suddenly did not make sense.”
‘I see blood on me, but from where?! It’s 2:15 a.m. now, and I’m crying in the bathroom. I don’t like hurting out loud. What was this doing to us?’: Woman struggles with ‘mental hurricane’ during undiagnosed illness
“I’m scared.’ I shook and started crying from the sharp pains. My hand cramped up; I couldn’t open it anymore. ‘I’m here, and I got this, and I got you.'”
‘Up until that point, I’d lived a charmed life. Then tragedy struck. It was isolating. But they also didn’t throw a ‘pity party’ for me.’: Man credits resilience for getting him through ‘each of those dark days’
“My life was quickly thrown upside down. The love of my life was suddenly killed in a car accident. I handled it with anger and bitterness. The economy began to crumble. I quickly became the best possible cab driver I could be. Shifts were 12 hours long. I pulled my boots up and reinvented myself. Then everything changed again. The ginger ale sat on the kitchen counter, slowly turning into a bomb. At the exact second Shelly passed the sink, the bottle exploded. I was horrified. What a battle it has been.”
‘I knew FA was present, but I refused to acknowledge it — to protect my heart and my free spirit.’: After years of denial, woman embraces mobility aid and life with a rare genetic disease
“I never talked about FA with friends, classmates, or professors. I exhausted myself doing so much walking around campus, attempting to keep up and pretend everything was ok. I had tunnel vision; walking on my own was all I cared about… until I had no choice.”
‘Call 911!’ My baby was twitching. I held his limp body. I heard sirens. They were coming for MY child.’: Boy suffering from Childhood Epilepsy undergoes brain surgery, ‘he is now happy and living with half a brain’
“We were getting ready for a nice picnic at the park. Suddenly, the right side of his body went stiff. His oxygen dropped. First firefighters, then paramedics. Our house was full of first responders. ‘Why is nothing working?!’ I wanted to wake up from this nightmare. I wanted him to live. I held my breath.”
‘My son’s tiny body was wracked with seizures. I stroked his tense, shaking face, whispering his name that he was safe.’: Mom says her son is a ‘miracle’ despite debilitating Polymicrogyria diagnosis
“This moment was one I’d never in my 33 years of anxiety imagined happening to me. I held my phone steadily pointed towards my little boy, in hopes of capturing his every move on video. I was witnessing something I’d never have wished on the worst of enemies. I searched ‘Polymicrogyria,’ ran to the toilet, threw up my breakfast and curled into a tight ball. When I tell friends my son has a condition that causes epilepsy, they respond by saying, ‘at least that is treatable.’”
‘I was sent home alone in an Uber in the middle of the night. ‘Just tell me your name!’ I couldn’t remember for the life of me what it was. All I could do was cry. That’s the only thing I remembered how to do.’
“I’ll never forget how I felt. I seemed hungover, except that wasn’t the case. My doctor told me, ‘Have you ever thought that it might be all in your head?’ Everything began to take a turn. I was once the quick-witted friend who always had a joke. Now I was the girl in the back of the classroom, crying because I didn’t know how to be a person anymore.”
