By PETER BAUMANN/lbedit9@laramieboomerang.com Saturday, October 06, 2012

On her left arm, above two sky blue bracelets, is a scar.

A year and a half after accidentally burning herself, its still there, and it shouldnt be.

For Shawna Hysong, scars, bruises and broken toes linger much longer than they would for the average 21 year-old woman.

The reason is the word on her two bracelets: Ataxia.

I didnt even know it was a word until they told me I had it, Shawna said. I was like, What is that?

Before being diagnosed in 2010 with Ataxia with Oculomotor Apraxia 2 (AOA2), Shawna thought she was merely clumsy. Falling down was common, and in high school she would have to brace herself against a railing or wall to go up stairs.

I thought that everybody kind of had these symptoms but that they covered them up better than I did, she said. I knew something was off when I started feeling not safe going up and down the stairs.

A neurological disorder passed on through genes, AOA2 affects everything. Shawna uses a cane to walk; her vision is bad enough that she cant drive, her hands incapable of holding a pen and writing. As the disorder progresses, it shrinks the part of the brain responsible for motor control.

I would just say that it makes me really clumsy, she said. My cerebellum is shrinking, thats what causes ataxia, this form anyway. There are lots of different forms of ataxia, and they all kind of affect people differently.

See the original post here:
Woman living with ataxia wants to ‘live each day’