Personal Narrative: Mixed Connective Tissue Disease
500 Words2 Pages
At the age of 27, my battle against MCTD, (Mixed Connective Tissue Disease) began. During the first 5 years of the battle, I continued to suffer horrible pain and many other debilitating symptoms on a daily basis, without the advantage of knowing what was causing the problems. I was prescribed 17 pills a day, which caused many problems of their own. At times during my illness, my ten year old son had to take on some of my care giving responsibilities and my husband of 3 years (at the time) was left to battle the loss of my $30,000 a year income. MCTD is not a rare disease but it is misdiagnosed on many occasions due to symptom similarities to a number of other diseases, for example Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Once I received the correct diagnosis, they were able to give me the treatment needed to live with this obscure disease. The irritating part about the entire situation was not the MCTD itself, but the lack of knowledge about the disease by numerous medical professionals.
During my illness, my grandmother was totally supportive in every way. She helped with our bills, drove me to my appointments and encouraged me to keep moving and never give up. So, when she was diagnosed with dementia about two years ago, it was devastating. I immediately began to research this disease. Studying the…show more content… The main focus of the organization is the research and education of community problems. One area of concern just happens to be medical issues. I could not only help teach people about limited knowledge diseases, but be a part of the actual research. I know in order to effectively pursue these goals; I need to be more knowledgeable in business and