On My Own Two by Young Lee

A friend and I surprised each other recently. I casually mentioned that I have Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT). And she revealed that I had never previously brought up the subject. We have been friends for almost 10 years. In college, we spent many late nights together working on articles for the…

I don’t particularly like hiking. Steep inclines and unpaved pathways make me nervous. And sometimes it feels like I have pogo sticks instead of feet. I don’t always know which direction my body will propel me. Nevertheless, the hiking trails along the Blue Ridge Parkway are gorgeous. And whenever…

We pulled up chairs so that we could sit closer to each other. She pointed at her shoe, to a place about an inch from the tip. “See, my toes only come up to about here,” she said. “But you know we buy shoes more for the width than the…

In grade school, I used to launch my ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) from my foot and into the air by twisting my toes as I kicked as high and as hard as I could. I would watch my AFOs spin in the sky before they fell to the ground. The…

Recently, my father sent me a copy of doctor’s notes he received in 1989. Those familiar with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) would recognize many of the phrases scattered throughout: “chronic weakness in lower extremities” and “increasing grip weakness,” to name a couple. It was when he first learned he had CMT,…