Betty's Journey

Woke up that morning and I could not move.

I couldn't get out of bed. I went to emergency room where I was basically left on a bed and was told, Nothing is wrong with you. I'm Betty. I'm living with MG, and this is my story.

I taught in DC public schools for about twenty seven years. I was told by my doctors that I shouldn't attempt to go back to teach because my eyelids would close if I try to drive. When you meet people, you introduce yourself and you say, I'm Betty and so on, so I'm a teacher. What do I do with my life at this point?

So family has always been important.

And so when I was diagnosed with MG and have to rely on people doing everything for me, you couldn't chew your own food, you can't dress yourself. You can't do a whole lot. You know, everybody has to do stuff for you. They have to carry me upstairs every time, like physically put me on their back.

From my husband to my seventeen year old, they have to pick me up to take me upstairs or bring me downstairs. My husband came to me and said, If you are walking by October, I'm gonna give you a huge party, which he did.

Four, three, two, two, the right, to the left. I started back to teach in twenty seventeen. I started viewing the world differently. It was just a job. It's not me per se. You know, I'm Betty, I'm a human being, I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I'm a daughter, I'm a sister. You know, all those different adjectives became more important than a teacher was just one of them.

We'd say, Okay, this is MG in my life.

It's not going to control everything I'm going to do. We're going to live together as partners. That's the way I plan to talk to it now. Okay, this is just another hurdle that we need to work through and overcome.