Three years ago we celebrated our first Duchenne Awareness Day. Marcus was with his 1st grader classmates when they let go of the symbolic red balloons in unity with the rest of the world who continue to raise awareness that such type of muscular dystrophy exists. He can still walk back then.
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a condition that affects mostly young boys. Also known as just Duchenne or DMD, this condition is progressive with symptoms that may manifest during the early stages of childhood with some kids starting to feel the signs earlier than the others. In Marcus’ case, his condition started to become obvious about a year since he started to stand up. He walks weird, can’t run like other kids, and had difficulty holding himself up on the monkey bars just to name a few. Eventually we discovered he has DMD after we had him checked at the age of seven. At eight he started using his red wheelchair.
DMD poses a whole lot of challenges on parents. The need for commitment, love, compassion, and patience cannot be stressed more than enough. To be honest, it is physically and mentally straining but once you put yourself in the shoes of the child who has it, then everything else that you secretly complain about becomes petty or trivial. As I always remind myself, if I’m frustrated and tired, more so Marcus. This short thought keeps me back up on track.
Today, September 7, we once again join all the families and the other Marcuses around the globe who continue to deal with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. We also wish good luck and more power to the people whose aim is to find a cure that could be available soon to everyone who has DMD. It may not happen in our lifetime but as long as the awareness is alive there is always hope. We also recognize the physical therapists (FYI, tomorrow is World Physical Therapy Day) who work hard so that our young boys’ lives are a little bit better each day.
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This week wifey had me watch Fundamentals of Caring on Netflix but we barely made it halfway as I got so sleepy after coming out of night shift. Despite the short clip I could already feel that this film’s depiction is accurate. Hope that we finish it this weekend and I hope I don’t shed a tear. Shhh.
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Marcus Can Blog 