Living with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), I’m often met with this question from others: “How do you do it?” Upon learning how much goes into living a life full of health issues and weakness as well as SMA’s unpredictable nature, many often want to know how I manage…
Life, One Cup at a Time - a Column by Alyssa Silva
This column describes the author’s own experience with a Spinraza (nusinersen) injection. Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a therapy. I thought it’d be different. I thought I’d be celebrating my 30th Spinraza injection with excitement and…
After closing the tab on my browser, I couldn’t help but wonder how much progress I’d made in the past year that I failed to notice. My words on the screen were there in plain sight, from a moment when life felt so different to me. It was hard to…
If you’ve perused my columns in the past, you’ll know I’m a big advocate for teaching children about disabilities. As a woman in a wheelchair who looks different from the average person, I’ve been the subject of glaring stares, mind-boggling comments, and the occasional finger-pointing from children. That…
Late last year, I embarked on an unexpected journey to self-discovery. The past several years had been an uphill battle with my health, each day bringing its own relentless fight. The good news was that I was surviving whatever conditions came my way. The bad news was that I…
When I was a little girl, I loved searching for dandelions at the first sign of spring. My mother would pick one off the ground for me, and I’d excitedly use all my strength and breath to remove the fluffy seed ball, or blowball, from the stem. One by one,…
There’s a memory that has sat quietly in the back of my mind for a while. After it happened, I wanted to write about the rawness and reality of how I felt in the moment. Yet, a gut feeling told me otherwise. The story wasn’t finished yet. There was more…
Peeking up from my pillow and seeing that it was 4:55 a.m. was an unpleasant surprise the other day. I had slept only a whopping 20 minutes longer than the night before, and it was becoming a pattern. Having fallen asleep around midnight, my body was riddled with exhaustion, but…
I have a confession to make. When the time comes to write this column, I often cry out to my parents, “What do I write about?!” I’m usually met with eye rolls. I don’t blame them. I’ve asked this question so many times that it’s become a running joke…
In 2019, I had my first videonystagmography (VNG) test. A VNG test uses ski-like goggles to test a person’s involuntary eye movements when moved into certain positions. Inside the goggles, a camera tracks these movements while the doctor assesses the problem on a computer screen. Though vertigo is…
