Hello clients, followers and readers,
I write this in hopes to reach out to anyone who may be
dealing with an illness or a struggle that keeps you from being successful or
achieving your dream.
I have Type III Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, also known as
Hypermobility. It affects every aspect of my life. It is an extremely painful
disorder and often keeps me from performing daily tasks even as simple cooking,
holding a hair brush or toothbrush and even unscrewing the caps of my
children’s sippy cups. My hands have been affected the worst and my pinky fingers
have been declared useless by my rheumatologist. I also have early onset
osteoarthritis in my hips and lower back. I have Plantars Fasciitis which
affects my feet. I have spent many nights standing at the ironing board crying
as I iron out fabrics for window treatments while my feet ache from the
Plantar’s. I suffer multiple dislocations on a daily basis even down to my jaw
joint which dislocates several times a day just from talking.
In an effort to keep my fingers strong I often played the
piano throughout my youth. But now that my pinkies are useless it makes the
piano more of a challenge. So I turned to another passion I had in my youth:
sewing! Sewing requires the use of your hands and fingers, obviously, but does
not necessarily require the use of pinkies! So I started to sew often in an
effort to keep the tissue around my joints strong. I now sew between six and
eight hours a day. I decided to make
this custom window treatments business because I couldn’t very well spend
thousands of dollars on fabric to do sewing projects that would fill up six
hours a day!
When I started this business I had no idea it would grow
into what it has. After I graduated college with my Bachelor’s in English I
worked a little bit but had to accept that I was going to be limited by my
disorder. My business has become very successful in the past year to the point
where I am looking for more seamstresses and other additional help. I never
thought with my disorder that I could ever be a small business owner. There are
days that are harder than others, and days that I simply can’t do it. But I
haven’t let it be the downfall of my business.
I have just formed the business to work for me and my special needs.
I hope that anyone out there reading this who is dealing
with an illness will find some inspiration in my story and feel like they can
be successful in spite of their illness.
Good luck to you all in your endeavors,
M.
