I’m Cody, I’m 26 years old and live with Duchenne muscular dystrophy which is a neuromuscular disorder that affects the muscles in your body and progressively makes them weaker. I was diagnosed at age 4 and had the ability to walk up until about Grade 2. My leg muscles were getting tired fairly easy so we decided a manual wheelchair would give me a better quality of life. By Grade 4, I was in a power chair as getting around was becoming harder and I wasn’t able to keep up with my friends.
For the most part I live a fairly normal life and not much stops me! I use a wheelchair van equipped with a lift and ramps built on my house. On November 17th 2010 I was brought into the Dartmouth General Hospital with pneumonia and a blood infection. I got out of hospital at the end of February, 2011 and because of the pneumonia I needed a trache and a feeding tube. I still have both to this day but I have been healthy ever since. I can no longer lift my arms up but I do almost anything everybody else does.
Of course there are times I’d like to be able to walk but for the most part I don’t even think about having a disability.
I support and believe in the wonderful people of Muscular Dystrophy Canada because they are getting awareness out into the community and providing a lot of hope to everybody affected by providing information, education and raising lots of money for equipment and hopefully one day perhaps even a cure.
