Leading Lady
By Cassandra Maniak
My name is Cassandra
Maniak; I’m 15 years old,
and am in the 10th grade.
My favorite subjects in school are
math and science, but I also love the
arts! In fact, all my life I’ve loved to
act, sing, and dance on stage. I also
enjoy working behind the scenes and
am planning to study to become a
theatrical engineer. I’ve been working
with outside organizations like the
Downriver Youth Performing Arts
Center (DYPAC) for about six years
now. We just finished performing the
play, A Christmas Carol, this past December, and I had
a lot of pleasure working in yet another performance.
I’m really looking forward to my future to see where
my acting and music talents will take me! But I wasn’t
always so confident about my future—especially when I
discovered three years ago that I had scleroderma.
I was 12 years old when the symptoms of my
scleroderma first appeared. While playing volleyball, I
discovered something was amiss—my wrists wouldn’t
bend while setting the ball. Also, simple things, like
riding a bike, became increasingly more difficult and
sometimes impossible to do. My muscles were tight and
my skin was very sensitive. At my worst, I lost most of
my range of motion in every joint except for my hips and
my shoulders. It took nine months, and working with
two different doctors (and a second-opinion), before
I finally received my diagnosis of scleroderma. Even
though I was told I had an incurable disease, I tried to
keep a positive attitude. I immediately began trying all
possible treatments and medicines that might help me
manage my symptoms.
As many adolescents with scleroderma already know,
trying out different medicines can be
a challenge in and of itself, besides
the pain that comes with it. I began
taking steroids very soon after my
diagnosis, but these only gave me
adverse side effects like weight gain
and other problems, so I phased
off of them. Instead, I was put on
methotrexate chemotherapy to help
stabilize me. Over what seemed to
be a long period of time, I started
recovering, and I finally was taken off
the chemotherapy.
I know I’m not “cured” of this
disease. I still have monthly check-ups with my doctor
and I have to monitor my health every day. But it helps
to know that every day I get up to dance, sing, play the
flute, or study for my exams, I’m beating this disease. I
guess you could say my best “performance” is the one I
do every day. I’m playing the lead role in my future, not
my scleroderma! |
