Mi Historia con la AMN

Please excuse my translation. Giancarlo wanted it posted in English, also. I have tried– Brad

It all started 5 years ago. I was 26 years old, I worked for a clinic and played sports, especially swimming. I lived a normal life like any child and young person. I was very outgoing and had many dreams to fulfill. I then began to have symptoms in my legs. They got fatigued when I walked a lot. I began to walk badly and sometimes I would fall. That frustrated me a little bit. Next, I began to feel urinary urgency and constipation- things that had never happened to me before. These things alerted me. I have a first cousin with stable cerebral ALD. Soon, I began to relate what was happening to me with ALD-X.

My mother was positive for ALD-X and I since I was the only male child, the probability that I had AMN was very high. Indeed, my genetic test was positive. At first, it was all very difficult and I thought that my life was over. My dreams, they had gone to garbage and I was going to end up bedridden or in a wheelchair. Everything would end. I slept very little, had nightmares and always imagined the worst.

One of my dreams is having a family and telling my children how good God has been to me despite this diagnosis.

They sent me to a psychiatrist to check my mental health. To help me accept the diagnosis, they put me on an antidepressant called Sertraline, a drug that I have never taken since I went to church and had the word of God in my heart.

I told God when I left the office, thank you for this diagnosis, I will not be disappointed because this is happening to me, because I know that if you allow it, there is something you want to teach me, something great that you are going to do. From now on my God is going to make my peace, and consolation in sad moments that I know will come, and give me my strength and my refuge. I am not going to have to turn to a psychologist or be dependent on an antidepressant or take medication to sleep. I can say that Jesus is God in sickness too, and that He does not abandon me. I have never missed a single day, I sleep peacefully.

I have been going to neurotherapy for 5 years as well as rehabilitation and hydrotherapy. Spasticity has advanced. Nowadays I walk with Canadian poles and I get very tired. I have fallen any number of times, but I know Jesus is on the way. He picks me up and I move on. I continue to trust Jesus. He is going to do the work, He is the owner of life, He is sovereign and has all authority over the disease, death could not retain him more than 2,000 years ago, much less a diagnosis that still has no cure, let us always thank God. It is very special to live this difficult process at the hand of God, Jesus is the hope of glory and we all need Him, so that the struggles and our life have true meaning.

greetings from Cali – Colombia, God bless you.

Giancarlo Alvarez