Every year on August 8th my family celebrates the day I started walking again. At 13 years old my knees became too painful to even stand up, so we rented a wheelchair to make it easier to get around school. As the months went on, everything worsened and spread. Soon I was bedridden and in constant body-wide pain. I couldn’t leave my hospital bed in my room due to severe back pain. I couldn’t breathe if I sat up straight or laid down flat. I couldn’t be touched anywhere on my shoulders or back due to intense hypersensitivity. I couldn’t put pressure on my legs to stand or walk because of the weakness and stabbing in my knees. My neck always hurt. All I could do was keep taking my meds and hope that one day the pain would stop.

By this point we knew I had Lyme disease, but it took three years of intense treatment before I was able to stand up out of that wheelchair and feel the ground beneath my feet.

Today is my 8-year walking anniversary, and to honor it, I decided to make a video where I describe in detail what really went down on that amazing night of August 8, 2008.

Click here to watch the video

 

For those who prefer audio over text, I’ve recorded myself reading this post here: