Posted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Voices of NMO
I am no stranger to rare diseases. At 17, I was diagnosed with Toxoplasmosis. At 22, Phyllodes tumors. Chiari Malformation I at 26. It was not until 2017, when I received the diagnosis of neuromyelitis optica that my life was changed… In early 2014, I moved into a new desk at work. This new desk […]
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My name is Allison and I am a married, busy mom of three children (17, 12 & 12 years old). My NMO journey started approximately seven years ago, when I was dealing with my husband’sunexpected open heart surgery and the passing of my mother… My body just wasn’t right; everything was off and out of […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Voices of NMO
My name is Ryan. Three years ago, I was living the dream. I was happily married to my best friend, and we have three beautiful and perfectly healthy children. We all lived together in our new home in Westwood. For the past seventeen years I worked for what is now called Eversource Electric, the largest […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, ON, Patient.e, Voices of NMO
My name is Jaime. I live in the small town of Exeter, Pennsylvania. I am a wife and a mother to a beautiful and healthy 15 year-old daughter. And I have NMO. I’ve been paralyzed from my waist down three times. I’ve lost my eyesight due to multiple bouts of optic neuritis attacks that have […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, Patient.e, TM, Voices of NMO
My biggest fear in life was that I would have some incurable sickness or disease. Not heights, nor spiders, nor public speaking. It was getting sick. Both of my parents had a myriad of physical and mental illnesses throughout my whole life, which seemed to be getting worse as the years went on. My mother […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, ON, Patient.e, TM, Voices of NMO
My name is Kellin. I am a 28-year-old South African NMO patient and this is my story… Late in 2015, my father suddenly passed away. It was a shock to my system and I was not prepared for it. In the months/years to follow, I experienced weird symptoms – which I now know were due […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, ON, Patient.e, TM, Voices of NMO
My name is Mitchel Navarro. I’m 34 years old, a wife, and a proud momma to two beautiful children – a girl and a boy. I have a bachelors degree in elementary education and was a teacher when this journey began. My days would begin at 5 AM and I’d finally be able to crawl […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, ON, Patient.e, TM, Voices of NMO
I can trace my first NMO symptoms back to when I was just 12 years old… I’d be walking down a flight of stairs and for a split second, it was as if a switch had been thrown, cutting off communication between my brain and my legs and I’d fall down the stairs. Sometimes I’d […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, ON, Patient.e, Voices of NMO
Five years ago, my oldest daughter and I were grocery shopping when it occurred to me that the grocery store looked foggy or smokey. When I asked her if she thought it looked the same, she gave me a “you’ve lost your mind” look. By the next day, my vision was gone in the left […]
Read MorePosted by: The Sumaira Foundation in NMO, ON, Patient.e, Voices of NMO
It was December 2019. I struggled almost every day with tension headaches (eyes and nose). My primary care doctor suspected I had migraines and prescribed me with migraine medication. I don’t like taking medication (never have) and stopped taking the pills after two days. I chose to fight the headaches… On Christmas Eve, I noticed […]
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