May is NF Awareness Month

Hello, my name is Mia Schwettman and I am 15 years old. I have a genetic disorder called Neurofibromatosis. My family found out when I was 9 months old. It is a disorder that does not discriminate in whom it affects. It is an unpredictable and incurable disorder. I have many marks on my body called cafe au lait spots that look like birthmarks.

I had very minimal manifestations of the disorder until a few years ago when it reared its ugly head in the form of a brain tumor. NF can cause tumors to grow anywhere on or within the body. It can cause learning disorders, bony deformities, along with many other things. There are three types of the disorder, NF 1, NF 2 and Schwannomatosis. I have NF 1. Although it is genetic, 50 percent of the new cases are spontaneous as I was. I do not let my disorder or knowing that I have a brain tumor get me down. I am an active teenager and a high school cheerleader. I take medicine to manage seizures caused from my brain tumor.

Although it is not visible to everyone that I have a genetic disorder, that is not always the case for people with NF. This disorder is common, yet many people have never heard of it. NF affects 1 in 3,000 births. If you would like to know more about my disorder, go to ctf.org.

MIA SCHWETTMAN, Scott City