Living with Leprosy

It was a brisk autumn morning and as my father and I walked down the long blocks of Park Avenue on our way to the doctor's office, my stomach was in knots. It was only a few days ago that the nurse called and told me that my test results from the biopsy the dermatologist had taken had come back, and that the doctor wanted to see me. I made an appointment to see him that same week and hung up the phone. Then I stopped and thought about it. I thought about the fact that doctors only ask patients to come into their office when something is wrong-something must be wrong. I called the nurse back and pleaded with her to tell me what was going on, to please let me know what had happened, but she insisted that the doctor would have to tell me. Here I was sitting in the reception area waiting to be called with my father as my protector, the one who would be strong. I was finally called into the doctor's office and told what would change my life forever. I had leprosy (also known as Hansen's disease). I had heard the word before because my aunt was diagnosed with it a few years before, but she lived thousands of miles away in Trinidad and here I was in America, (I had immigrated to New York with my family when I was nine) alone without her to teach me about this illness or to hold my hand while I went through what I knew would be a long and difficult journey. All I could do was cry uncontrollably, and watch while my doctor left the room to get my dad.

I was diagnosed with leprosy in 1998 at the age of eighteen during my sophomore year in college. Despite my illness I got married during my senior year, graduated magna cum laude, held officer positions in two student organizations, and had a part-time job. I am now twenty-eight, a wife, and mother of two young boys, and am healthy.

To set the record straight, there are not seven thousand cases of leprosy in the United States each year, as the media would like us to think. In fact the actual number of new cases was one hundred and sixty-six in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.