Transverse Myelitis: Our Stories, is a book of
happiness, sadness, perseverance, strength, wisdom, caring and many other emotions. It’s a book of stories of those that have been affl icted with the disorder, stories of how it has affected them and their families, their lives, their livelihood, and stories of how they are dealing with it. These stories are written from the heart, from each individual person, in their own words, how Transverse Myelitis has affected them. In most cases, it was extremely tough for the person to write the story surrounding their own circumstance. Transverse Myelitis is certainly a life changing event and it can hold many deep, disturbing memories and emotions. TM is still a fairly rare disorder and not known well enough so that if one of your friends asks you what is wrong and you tell them that you have Transverse Myelitis, they won’t have a clue what you are talking about. Everyone knows what cancer is, what diabetes it, what polio is and even usually what multiple sclerosis is, which TM is a cousin disorder of. We also wanted to put this book together to show that TM can literally affect virtually anybody. We wanted to put this book and our stories out there to hopefully raise some more awareness as to what TM is and how it affects you. We want to do this because at this point in time, there is no cure for it and it is a devastating disorder. In particular, what gets me the most is when it affects very young children. They don’t deserve this at all, they don’t deserve the pain, the spasms, the muscle weakness and atrophy, the steady diet of medications, the heavy calender of doctors visits, not being able to walk or play normally etc…it goes on and on. Now, you’re saying to yourself “why would I want to read this book?” and I’ll tell you why. You’ll probably not find another book of personal stories that are so touching, so caring, so down to earth. Some of the stories are fairly short, others are a bit longer, but each is just as
important as the other. This book and these stories will probably make you laugh and cry. Make you sad, happy and proud for each of these people for persevering in the face of adversity. Any proceeds that are made from the sale of this book are going to help those with Transverse Myelitis and to also go to research into a cure for TM. Thank You...!!
