Devic's Girl: The Outcast

When I was diagnosed they thought I had Multiple Sclerosis and was treated accordingly.  Yet after many tests, doctor visits, hospitalizations, and studies my diagnosis was tweeked to Atypical MS/Neuromyelitis Optica.  A mouth full, I know.  It's also known more simply as Devic's Syndrome.  I was a lab rat being studied like some interesting oddity.  That's alright though because my personality is to always meet an obstacle head on and keep pushing forward.  Along with my impenetrable persistence and a team of top doctors I finally had my answer.

I knew Devic's was rare and therefore I would be a bit more isolated.  I never did fit into that little golden box labeled "normal" by society.  What I honestly never expected was to be turned away by a few MS support groups on Facebook.  Apparently, I didn't fit into their "guidelines" also.  They told me what I had wasn't normal MS.  I pose this question:  What, if anything, is normal about MS?  I assume this is due to neurologists still debating whether Devic's Syndrome is a form of MS or not.  Diseases isolate people enough let being further rejected.  It's not like I was a cancer patient looking to join an MS group!  Basically, I have been a victim of disease discrimination!  I never even knew that such a thing existed.  I realize there's a law protecting the disabled but there's no law against people with diseases discriminating their own kind.  Has mankind become this petty?  Aren't other prejudices, such as race, color, and religion enough to separate us?  

Though out history at least one common thread has been repeated and this is up to individual opinion whether it's a negative effect or a positive one.  A common enemy unites people like nothing else.  Usually this enemy threatens physical and/or psychological harm.  It was my understanding that MS and it's variants would unite people like myself; MS being the common enemy to my kind but maybe I was a tad naive. As you can tell this has left a sour taste in my mouth that, like with all wounds, will heal with time.  I do refuse, however, to let the ignorance of a few demolish my faith that they are still genuinely kind individuals in our world.

---