Our nation has impossible problems, but I’ve learned to solve those.
Disability Roulette
In 2013, toward the very end of my doctoral work at Clemson, I became paralyzed and began to struggle with words.
The symptoms abated, then returned again—along with blindness & deafness, fainting, memory loss, and more. Symptoms were totally unpredictable between one moment and the next. Often, I stayed awake through the night because breathing required conscious effort.
There was no obvious pattern, and no one could tell me what was wrong. With no diagnosis, I began calling it “disability roulette.”
After several years and dozens of specialists, doctors began to recommend that I find acceptance.
I realized they were giving up on me.
So, I returned the favor.
I began to teach myself cutting-edge neuroimmunology. It was painfully slow due to the difficulty of reading even one sentence.
Two years later, I found the first drug which allowed me to walk again.
Recovery
Each improvement helped me find the next a little faster.
I ultimately lost a decade during which I’d hoped to pursue a career and a family—but it was better than the alternative.
In 2022, I was finally able to have my genes fully sequenced and began to dig through all the code.
Last year, on the day after Christmas, I discovered the exact gene which has been causing the problem. It is an autoimmune issue which appears totally unique to me—the reason no doctors could diagnose the problem.
With a precise cause, I have been able to stabilize my condition, and am now working toward a true cure.
Steel
After my first paralysis, I had a bracelet made for my worst days. It was bigger than the hospital tags, so I’d remember the important thing.
As the years wore on, I increasingly wondered, “Why is this necessary? For what purpose am I being forged?” Faith was an ongoing struggle, but I kept an open heart.
When I was finally able to look up from my own battle, I was shocked to discover that I could hardly recognize my own country anymore. I began to hear an increasingly-insistent Call to go fix my nation, and I understand now that it is my responsibility to save my family’s legacy.
I was forged to remake my country.
Is it an impossible task?
It’s a necessary task.
Necessity leaves no room to consider possibility. With God, all things are possible.