“Relationships aren’t perfectly symmetrical and that’s okay.” – Melissa Rothstein

After my diagnosis, I learned that no matter how long someone has been in your life, ALS causes such dramatic change that you will have to lay a new foundation for your relationships. When I felt my relationships fracturing under the strain of my mysterious disease and growing disabilities, I realized I needed help. I turned to my best friend, Melissa Rothstein.

Melissa has been living with Crohn’s Disease, a debilitating chronic illness, for ten years, so I knew she would understand my situation. Plus, as a program coordinator at the Wellness Center at UC Davis, she saw the isolation disabled students faced and the way it damaged their mental health, so she worked with the counseling staff to build community amongst the struggling students. In doing so, Melissa became an expert on managing relationships while dealing with disabilities. She…