Life, One Cup at a Time
— Alyssa Silva

Whenever I think about how I started driving my wheelchair at 3 years old, I always wonder, “Whose great idea was that?” I accidentally crashed into furniture. I made plenty of dents in the walls learning how to navigate my new set of wheels. I even accidentally knocked down the…

Some of life’s best lessons come from the beach. Don’t you agree? Maybe it’s because I’m a solar-powered soul, but the beach is my happy place. It’s where I go when I need to recharge and clear my head. There’s something about the sound of waves crashing onto the shore…

While living with SMA, I’ve been on the receiving end of many people’s misconceptions about the disease. To an extent, I understand their lack of awareness; there are many diseases and conditions that I don’t know about, either. But there’s a fine line between not understanding the complexities of…

There’s an old adage that says March comes in like a lion, but where I’m from, it comes in more like a tease. In New England, March is still cold and snowy, and it seems to drag on for much longer than 31 days. But as soon as the…

Something you may not know about me is that I have two homes. My first abode is a one-story home that was built to fit my needs almost 20 years ago. It’s in a quiet neighborhood with broken-down streets that make going out for a walk difficult in my wheelchair.

“OK, SMA. You win,” I thought after signing off from a virtual meeting. I didn’t know how it was possible to feel so defeated yet relieved about finding a solution for one of my recent health woes. But there I was, staring up at my ceiling and arguing with…

Among the many SMA symptoms I live with every day, fatigue has permanently staked out its territory at the top of the list. I am perpetually tired. There are days when my fatigue gets the best of me, but more often than not, I’ve learned to live with it.

As many readers of this column may know, SMA is considered a rare disease. But what some may not know, or simply overlook, is that people with SMA don’t share the exact same experiences. When I think of my experiences, I think of math class —…

Life doesn’t always flow the way it’s supposed to, and by “flow,” I mean literally. I’ve recently been experiencing a lot of issues with my nasojejunal (NJ) tube. It’s become more difficult to place each time it needs to be exchanged. It clogs much more easily than…

Sobbing a blubbery and snotty cry while waiting for an elevator was likely my rock-bottom moment in January. I’d just left the interventional radiology department after another stressful procedure at the hospital. Thankfully, it went as easily as it could have, given the difficult situation. But something…

The best advice I could ever give someone is simple: Get more dogs. I guess if cats are more your thing, that’s OK, too. What’s important is that no matter the animal, they bring you joy. After all, that’s what pets are — endless amounts of joy and unconditional love.

I got out of my van at the hospital for what felt like the millionth time that month, and I could hear the deafening sound of a helicopter landing above me. Though hundreds of feet above, its whirling sound ricocheted off the buildings and echoed down below. The sound vibrated…