Inspiring the next generation

Hi, I'm Angela, and I live here in Houston, Texas, and I'm married to the most wonderful man, Justin. 

I've always been a person who just has a really independent spirit. And whether it means I'm going to be able to do something myself or if I'm gonna help to put the right people in place to help me accomplish that task, I'm just gonna figure it out. 

My doctor and I talked about the goals that I have for my life, and if Evrysdi would help me to potentially achieve those goals. And we talked about kind of the potential side effects that could take place, but also the things that could possibly happen after taking it. After that discussion, we made the choice that I would be taking Evrysdi. 

When I think of taking Evrysdi, it fits so perfectly with my "I can" attitude. I like to focus on the things that I can do, and so I can take Evrysdi every day. When I started with Evrysdi, I definitely wanted just to maintain where my current motor function is. I thought about how important my arm and hand function were to my daily living. It allowed me to brush my teeth and put on my own makeup. That's really important to me, because it's less caregiver time. I didn't want to get to a point where I needed to bring in more help or where my husband needed to assist me, 'cause we've built a life around the things that I'm able to do, and I wanted to maintain as much motor function as I can so that I could keep doing the things that are important to me. 

I've always been able to feed myself. I got into makeup when I was pretty little, so starting in about sixth grade I had my blue eyeshadow that I was able to do myself and can continue to do that as well, now that I'm in my forties. 

I'm really happy with my results on Evrysdi. Every time I go to the neurologist, I do a motor function test, and the last time I went, I actually went up a point, which I don't know if that means anything to you, but I was really excited. I was able to tear a piece of paper, and it was the best sound I'd ever heard, that I was able to do that. I was still able to move the jar of coins from one circle to the other, and I picked up the bag of bird seed, so it was exciting. Over the years, trips to neurologists can kind of be disheartening when you have SMA, because things aren't necessarily getting better. And so to score a point higher on a test and do a little bit better, it means everything. 

One thing that's really important to me in this world and my purpose is to kind of eliminate those stereotypes of people with disabilities. And so part of that has always been that I want the illusion of independence. I want, when people look at me, I want them to think, "Man, she does it all." "She's able to accomplish so much." And behind the scenes, there's people that help me do that. 

Being a teacher is one of the greatest gifts of my life. I wanna know that I am doing everything I can to maintain motor function so that I can be there for my family, and my students, and my husband. I would tell anyone with SMA to go and talk to their neurologist and talk to them about Evrysdi, because for me, it has been such a good option. 

This is Evrysdi in action.