Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Life after being diagnosed with Becker's Muscular Dystrophy

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When I was first diagnosed with Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy at the age of 10 my life really didn’t change that much. The only thing I really noticed is that I just couldn’t keep up with other children my age, but it really didn’t bother me that much. Even as a child most time’s I kept a positive attitude about things, sure I had trouble running which limited my ability to participate in team sports, I just didn’t let it get to me. To be honest most time’s I didn’t allow my condition to keep me from being involved in playing sports with my friends. For most of my childhood I was able to take part in shooting hoops, playing baseball and was even was able to play floor hockey. What really helped me a lot was the fact that growing up most of my close friends knew about my condition and they just allowed me to play sports at my own pace. When I was younger I remember a time when my churches youth group was going to a local park to play a game of soft ball, at first I didn’t think I was going to be able to play, but thankfully one of my friends offered to run for me. This allowed me to join in the game and have a great time with everyone else, and what made that day even better is that when it was my turn up to bat I hit the ball so far that the person running for me actually made it all the way to third. As you can see even with Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy I was still able to be involved in sports just in a different way. I really believe that I was lucky that growing up I had people in my life who understood what my limitations were.

Sure growing up I ran into a few problems, but to be honest having Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy really didn’t end up ruining my life. From the day of my diagnosis to at least the age of 18 my life wasn’t that bad there was actually many things I could still do. Stairs were a bit of a problem but when I was younger I was still able to climb stairs, I just had to climb them in my own unique way. But my biggest problem with stairs came when I had to go down them; you see I had to be very careful since there were a few times as a child that my legs gave out resulting in me falling and sliding down the stairs. As you can see living with Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy I have faced a few challenges and at time's I had to adapt to the situation and do things in a way that works best for me. I learned pretty quickly that when going down stairs I really have to take my time, it's was the same when it came to me and playing sports I just had to do it at my own pace. You see there are many things I was still able to do as a child, I even joined my friends whenever they would go to the local amusement park. I just took a lot of breaks but I still had a great time. You see growing up I never allowed the Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy to get in my way of having fun.






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