: Paralysed In 1 Day, How I Rebuilt My Life After My Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis #IndiaNEWS #Disability On the morning of 26 October 2009, I woke up feeling absolutely normal. In fact, the next day

Paralysed In 1 Day, How I Rebuilt My Life After My Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis #IndiaNEWS #Disability
On the morning of 26 October 2009, I woke up feeling absolutely normal. In fact, the next day was my wedding anniversary, so it would even be right to say that I was in a rather buoyant mood. By afternoon that day, I started feeling feverish, so I popped a medicine. That same evening, when I tried to get out of the bed, I fell flat. I was paralysed from the neck down. �?
Coimbatore resident Swarnalatha J was 29 years old when this happened.
At that point, while she did not know it yet, she was suffering from Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (MS). And life thereafter was never the same for her.
Swarnalatha was no stranger to struggles, but this one would prove to be the most challenging. But true to form, she fights on with a smile on her face.
Now 42, Swarnalatha is an Asia Book of Records holder, a disability rights activist, a singer, photographer, motivational speaker and a beauty pageant winner. She often writes short stories and can also speak about 10 languages. Today, The Better India sits with her to catch a glimpse of her life with MS, and how she still soldiers on.
‘I picked up one piece at a time’
Swarnalatha and Guru
“I was born in Bangalore and was the second of four daughters. My parents had huge expectations that I would be a boy, and their disappointment when they found out otherwise was so strong that it translated into how I was treated later on,�? she says.
Growing up in a household where she received no love or acceptance, she says always craved for that in all her relationships. “This was coupled with the fact that there was never enough money to go around, but too many mouths to feed,�? she adds.
Once Swarnalatha completed her Class 10, she enrolled in a diploma course in computer science.
In her final year, she recalls being subjected to sexual abuse by her father’s brother.
“Instead of being treated like a victim, I was blamed and treated like the culprit. Moreover, I was placed under house arrest and was forced to give up on my course. I stayed like that for one whole year, all the while trying to convince my parents to let me study,�? she says. “After a lot of back and forth, they finally relented and allowed me to complete my education. �?
You would think that life would have started looking up for Swarnalatha, but just as she resumed her college, she met with an accident. “I sustained multiple injuries, which required me to go through several rounds of surgeries. I had injured my mandible bone (jaw), which meant that for almost six months, I was unable to speak or eat,�? she says.
It took Swarnalatha one year to recover from the accident.