It's All Happening Too Quickly!by Latifa Daud Hi. My name is Latifa Daud. I am a 13-year-old girl from New Zealand. Earlier this year, I wrote this speech for my class. It’s entitled “It’s All Happening Too Quickly!” and it tells the story of how I learned I have CMT.
Imagine yourself, one week, you’re playing in the playground with your friends, running around having a good time. The next week, you’re going from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what’s wrong with you.
Well, this is exactly what happened to me two years ago. It all started, when I was 10 and my dad noticed that it was harder for me to move easily. Actually, my sister thought something was up way before that but nobody paid attention to her.
So, anyway, dad suggested going to the doctor. Even though we didn’t think anything was wrong, we went to the doctor just to be safe. The doctor thought it was a lack of calcium so he made me get a blood test.
Honestly, that was a complete waste of time. The blood tests showed nothing. The next step was to go to a paediatrician, but he said he wasn’t the right guy for the job, so he referred me to a orthopaedic surgeon, who also said it wasn’t his department.
I went to a neurologist next, and FINALLY, he was the right guy! After that life changed quickly. I had blood test after blood test. It was hard getting used to all those needles in and out of my arm, but still nobody knew what was wrong with me.
Two years went by and things were gradually getting worse. It finally hit me that life would never be the same again. There I was, with a scooter and people constantly asking me what was wrong and all I could do was say, “I don’t know.” It was tough.
And then there is my family. There’s my dad who makes me take at least 10 pills every morning. And my mum who makes me go to all these people who she thinks are going to help. Thank God, my sisters are just normal about everything.
Then, in June, 2005, the doctor said I should have a nerve biopsy. A few days after that appointment I was in the hospital. I couldn’t eat anything that morning because otherwise the anaesthetic would make me sick.
Time went so fast and before I knew it, the operation was over and I was waking up in the recovery room with all these people around me. I couldn’t get any rest at all with all these people surrounding me. And I was in a room with 6-year-olds!
The section of my nerve went straight to Sydney for this professor to examine. He found out that I had Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a disorder that affects the nerves that control my muscles.
It causes foot-drop, foot bone abnormalities, problems with balance, problems with hand function, occasional lower leg muscle cramping, loss of some normal reflexes, curvature of the spine and sometimes, breathing difficulties.
All this happened in just one year. If you asked anyone I went to primary school with, they would say I was perfectly normal. It just goes to show how much your life can change in a really short time. But, even after everything that’s happened, I’m getting on with my life, and nothing’s stopping me. | 
