My wife, Megs (Margaret, but we call her Megs), has health problems that have forced her to stop working because she has become increasingly disabled.
It all started two years ago when she started having unexplained seizures and skin pigmentations. When she had tests done in the hospital and the results came back, it was discovered that Megs had tuberous sclerosis, which is, as Dr. King explained it to us, a genetic disorder that causes non-malignant tumors to form in many different organs of the body, primarily in the brain, eyes, heart, kidneys, skin, and lungs. It is a fairly rare (if little known) disorder.
Because of her problems, Megs has had to go on disability because her seizures have gotten worse. She is on medication and now has a seizure-alert dog who alerts us if she is about to have a seizure (or is already seizing). It's been very hard seeing a once vibrant, happy, healthy young woman become a virtual prisoner of her own body, and there isn't really anything that can be done to help her except close monitoring, medications, and operations if the tumors grow large enough to threaten her very life.
I have had to take an exta job in order to try to keep up with the burgeoning medical bills that keep coming or have my mother and father watch the children (Grady, Grania, and Conor) if their mother is sick or in the hospital again for one thing or another. My wife is currently awaiting a decision regarding her disability claim; if she is denied, we will have to get a lawyer. This is the third time we have tried and if they deny her, we will get a lawyer to help represent our case. It's been very frustrating, to say the very least.
We had no clue that Megs had this disorder until the skin pigmentation and the seizures started. It's been a very scary road, and we don't know what the future will hold. We just hope that something can be done to help Megs have a better life than the one she is currently experiencing and that the seizures (and other issues) can be controlled.
~End of part one!~
