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How I Found My ‘Courage to Care’

Some people are natural-born performers, leaders, artists, lawyers, doctors, or teachers. I like to say I was born to be a caregiver. Some of my first memories are watching over my younger sister and cousins while we were growing up. I like to think that caregiving is something that runs…

Turn Up the Volume, but Only Until It Hurts: My NMOSD Diagnosis Story

I will always love the feeling of a good bass line, the way the sound escapes concert speakers and vibrates through my entire body. It’s poetic justice that this feeling can now trigger painful spasms, a symptom of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). My husband (then fiancé) and I had…

My NMOSD Diagnosis Was a Long and Difficult Journey

I was born and raised in Cuba, playing outside, running, and enjoying my friends. In my healthy teen years, I didn’t think I’d ever become chronically sick, much less stop walking. However, everything changed when I watched a movie about a boy named Lorenzo who suffers from a degenerative…