 Being diagnosed with CIDP was definitely the most difficult moment in my entire life, hands down. Not only personally taking my physicality away, but also it was like running into a brick wall with my career. I grew up in the country on a farm in a log cabin and for some strange reason musical theater seemed to be in my blood. When I was a performer I loved giving to the audience and seeing the reactions. It's the greatest feeling in the world. I opened up my own professional theater company called Theater Works Florida that is now in its 13th year. I was putting my dancers through the audition and I started to feel tingling in the bottom of my feet. So I spent two years running around trying to find an answer. I was diagnosed with CIDP and that stands for Chronic Inflammatory Dymillineating Polyneuropathy. About 15 years ago the doctors believed that I touched a virus, it went into my system, reprogrammed my immune system and made it attack instead of defend. I knew nothing about neurology and sort of found out what all of that meant and went out in my truck and cried and cried and cried. There is no cure for CIDP and it does nothing but progress through your body. It's all nerve damage. I've been in a very physical industry, singing, dancing, acting. It was devastating. I've been with Optum since the very beginning of my diagnosis. I believe that anybody with any sort of major health issues or that needs major health care should have an integrated health system. Integration at that level with Optum goes from billing to pharmaceutical where I actually talk with the pharmacist. One thing we've used on the holistic side with technology has been this portal. So when you open up the portal, not only can you pay your bill, but you can talk to your doctors. I am an Optum infusion patient for over five years. I met the nurse of nurses. Her name is Jill Young and she has been with me for five years now and we have developed the most amazing relationship that makes the infusion of now we're at four hours fly by. I've been seeing Scott for five years and through the five years he has definitely progressed. He's had more pain develop. He's had more falls, but it's his persistence to get out there and not stop his life. He's not let this disease define him. I am looking at myself. I am now 53 years old, five years into my diagnosis of CIDP. And I know realistically this will continue to progress unless we can find a way to stop it. And that is the game of CIDP, not to cure it today, but to stop it from progressing. They've slowed it way down. You don't like big noodles. Optum resources during COVID-19 have actually been even better than I thought they would be. What we do extra in the home that would truly keep me safe and adhering to those things continuously. Let's be perfectly honest. It's not perfect anymore. There are times I bump into the mirror. There are times I stumble on the floor, but if I could impress upon anybody, not just people with CIDP, but with any sort of major disease that has to be part of their life and is never going away is to embrace it. Don't be afraid of it. Get through the fear. Learn about it and tell your support system about it. If you don't embrace it, you're only hurting yourself.