September 2010 changed my entire life…or so I thought. Overall I was feeling healthy and fine, but everyone told me that I was limping and I couldn’t open a bottle top.  After seeing various doctors I found out that I needed to start receiving IV infusions every couple weeks to treat this strange condition that I have. My diagnosis with CIDP was scary, unnerving but mostly just confusing. I was a 16 year-old teenager who all of a sudden had to worry about a disease that I didn’t fully understand. My prior main concerns were getting my driver’s license and making it to as many Yankee games as I could before the school year started.

After I learned more about CIDP, I realized that I was one of the lucky ones. Most people battling this disease do not get diagnosed until they lose the ability to walk. Although I struggled to keep up walking down the street with my family and friends, I could still walk and live a mostly normal life.  Although I have to spend some Friday nights and Saturday mornings receiving infusions, I still make the best of it and try to have fun while doing so.  So has my diagnosis of CIDP changed my life? I may never have the stability to be a hockey player, but I do not let that stop me from doing everything else a teenager my age wants to do.

While learning all about CIDP, I discovered that major advancements had been made in the treatment options of CIDP yet much more was still to be done.  I wanted to help and with the assistance of my parents, The Michael D. Rothman CIDP Research Fund was founded to support research for a more conclusive diagnosis of CIDP to help people who are not as fortunate as I was. CIDP is something that I will have to live with for the rest of my life, but I am able to receive the proper treatment and I am progressing positively because I was correctly diagnosed. 

 I encourage you to join me and the efforts of the Michael D. Rothman CIDP Research Fund to help further CIDP research. Maybe one day I will be able to be a hockey player!