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I used to HATE the words Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis (ANMDAre)! The name, similar to the disease it represents, is complicated and mysterious. It offers no insight to what the disease entails, unless you are a physician and, even then, you may not have ever heard of this illness, only recently identified in 2007, by Dr. J. Dalmau. Unlike Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (better known as ALS), Cystic Fibrosis or Muscular Dystrophy, it is not a household name. I would obsessively repeat this name in my head over and over, determined to make it known, to make it mean something, to make it memorable for those that have not had the misfortune to become intimately acquainted with this cruel, unpredictable, multi-faceted master of masquerade. I witnessed my daughter become a victim of this devastating disease in 2008 and just when we thought she would recover from it for good, it would strike again… and again and again; altogether five times within a span of four years.
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