If this touches your heart please visit www.giveitforward.com/aprilshome.
Let me tell you a little about me. My name is April and I have 3 wonderful kids, a loving husband, and a challenged dog. In 2010 I fell 8 times in 1 week and thought I broke my arm. So I went to the emergency room where they x-rayed it and did a number of other tests on me. The doctor came in and said your arm is not broke but will you walk down the hall and back for me. I thought that was weird but I did it. Then he said if you were in my bar I would not serve you and I said I have not been drinking. He said I know and I think you need to see a neurologist. So I got a referral and went to see one here in Bellingham, WA. After seeing several more doctors each one with more blood work. I even had to have a spinal drip, CAT scan, MRI, some heart test, and a blood patch done. They got me a referral to Seattle Washington to the university hospital. I went up to Seattle to see what they might think was wrong with me. After going through my medical history and having me walk up and down the hall. He gave me a list of possible things I might have and told me to look them up and see which ones I think might fit. I spent hours looking each one up and then as I read about Freideich’s Ataxia I knew that was what I had. A few days had past and my doctor called me from Seattle to see if I had any luck. I told him that I thought it was FA and he said that was the one he was going to test for first. I went back to Seattle to have the test done and about a week later just after my 28th birthday, he call and said my test was in. It was confirmed I had FA. As I read more and more I thought this cannot be what I have. I did not want to face the fact that I was dying. I guess no one really wants to face that. I was glad I have my family to help me through it. For some of you that do not know Freideich’s Ataxia is a terminal condition. Freideich’s ataxia is an autosomal recessive inherited disease that causes progressive damage to the nervous system, resulting in symptoms ranging from gait disturbance to speech problems; it can also lead to heart disease and diabetes. Freideich’s ataxia results from the degeneration of nerve tissue in the spinal cord, in particular sensory neurons essential (through connections with the cerebellum) for directing muscle movement of the arms and legs. The spinal cord becomes thinner and nerve cells lose some of their myelin sheath (the insulating covering on some nerve cells that helps conduct nerve impulses). It has been almost 3 years and I am getting worse. The other day I thought my brain told my arms to move when I was trying to open a dresser drawer and instead my head flung forward and I hit my head on the dresser. We have been trying to move closer to an Ataxia hospital and found a cute little town in Benson, AZ. I was trying to look for something that we could afford to live in and I came across this house. As I looked through the pictures of the house, I could see my family there. It is a fixer-upper but is the perfect place for my big family. We tried to get a loan and found out that they would not count my husband’s income because when we move he will not have that income. So all they could go on was mine. I get disability and that does not pay much. Even with my money the bank said I did not have enough credit history for them. So I talked with my grandmother and she told me about this page and here I am asking for help. I try really hard to help so many people from giving them places to stay to watching their kids. I am hoping that everyone who reads this has a big heart and can help a little.
