Charcot-Marie-Tooth: From High School Until Given Birth

Welcome back once again to my story of my life with CMT. Today I am going to go over the years between my graduating from High School up until I gave birth to my son. This is probably not going to be a long post for there wasn't much about this time that really stuck out to me other than a few stupid teenage stunts and my pregnancy.

After I graduated from High School I was a stubborn teenager who thought I knew it all. After all I had a job so I was making my own money which meant that I should be able to do whatever I wanted and what I wanted was to move across the country. Now after so many years have come and gone from that point, I have to admit that I was pretty stupid in doing what I wanted by moving across the country. Honestly, I didn't learn much in regards to my CMT but I learned plenty in what the real life is really like and matured some in the year I was away from home. After that year of some maturing I pretty much ran back home with my tail tucked between my legs.

As I stated in my last post that I stayed with McDonald's until I was almost 20, while moving I was able to find jobs at McDonald's in the different places I moved to. That didn't change when I came back home either for I was quickly hired back at the same McDonald's I left when I ran away in essence.

When I was 20 years old I became pregnant, and that is when some interesting things came into play. I had to first decide what I was going to do for there were so many options and things to think about. I thought about an abortion for only 20 minutes but couldn't commit murder of my unborn child for this child didn't ask for me to play, so it wasn't fair to make the child have to pay the piper. I thought about adoption but that didn't seem fair to the child. That left only parenting my unborn child, which I felt peaceful about doing.

The reason I couldn't put my child up for adoption is because I knew that my child had a 50/50 chance of developing CMT, and who better to raise a child who might have CMT than someone who has it. My life up until I made my decision to parent my child may not have been filled with things I wanted to do but physically couldn't, but it wasn't the end of the world either. I figured and hoped that I could be the positive role model in my child's life like my Dad was to me, whether or not my child ever shows signs of the CMT. If my child developed it them maybe I would be able to help my child get around the uncertainty, anger and everything else that might pop up.

I decided that even though I was surprised by being pregnant I just wanted to be able to take care of my child on my own without having rely on the state for more than the health insurance. I continued working after I found out that I was pregnant but sadly for only a few months for some unexpected, and unknown complications popped up in regards to my CMT. I didn't realize that the hormones caused by my pregnancy would wreak havoc with the CMT but it did and oh boy did it ever. I worried for I was falling a lot more and loosing the fine motor skills that I had in my hand so I did what I had to do and quit I my job. Little did I know that it was the hormones for after I had my child things with my CMT reverted quickly to where I was before I was pregnant. This is the only time that I heard about CMT ever reversing.

As I said I had to quit my job and I really did not like that for I hated the idea of going on welfare simply I was not married and about to become a single parent. Welfare has never had a good image, but I didn't want to be just another number of lazy, baby making women who thought that the world owed them something for I never thought that the world owed me a single thing, but what else could I do? I was beginning to fall at work and at home, but because I worked around ovens, stoves, grills and fryers it was pretty dangerous for me to continue working, so I had to think of my unborn child above all else. It was a pretty simple choice when it came down to it for I choose between thinking of my pride by not going on welfare or put my unborn child's safety ahead of my pride by going on welfare.

When I made the choice for welfare I also decided to take full advantage of everything that I could so I could quickly get off of it again and never have to go back on to it. The programs I planned on taking advantage of were ways to help pay for higher education, child care and cost to help with transportation, programs basically intended to be taken advantage of to make life better for those who had the willingness to try and desire for that better life. I also decided to take advantage of having health insurance. Since I didn't know about the hormones affecting my CMT yet I was seeing a decline in the symptoms I figured I better just go for an over all health check including seeing what was going on with the CMT.

While pregnant I started making plenty of decisions in regards to my health, after all I was to become a parent soon so I had to make the choices that would be best for both myself and my child. I also learned that I couldn't just forget, ignore or put off caring for my CMT. The words of one doctor, shortly after my diagnoses, told my Mom and me that I would be in a wheelchair by the time I was 25 years old, and with a child coming I couldn't really ignore all that was happening any longer. I know I had met with doctors throughout my teenage years who refuted that doctor saying no doctor could predict that but it was always in the back of mind, so I had to start taking better care of myself.

After my son was born things changed, for my CMT reverted to about where I was before I became pregnant but I still planned on seeing a neurologist and orthopedic any how. Though things were better for me with the CMT I decided that it would be best regardless for me to continue with seeing the doctors to get an idea about what was happening with the CMT and if there was anything that needed to be done for the CMT, such as surgery, before I went on with my plans for schooling. I didn't want to start schooling then pause everything because something needed to be done and it would take a while to get back to school. I was taking things just one step at a time and I didn't want to take any backwards steps either.

In a few days come back to hear how those doctors appointments went for some life changes happened and all in regards to my CMT. Thank you for reading my posts and learning more about what it is like for me to live with CMT.