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| Why Joe and Maggie Count: |
| Joe and Maggie count because they live on this planet and are little kids – just like healthy kids – they have hearts, feelings, fears and moments of time each day that gives each of them joy. They may not smile and laugh out loud but I can still see a sparkle in their eyes when they see something that is meaningful to them. |
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| Favorite Hobbies: |
| Serious Barney Watchers. They also like Blue’s Clues and, occasionally, Bob the Builder. |
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| Proudest Accomplishment: |
| I am proud of my children’s courage. I see it as they decline and have to deal with the effects of MPS. |
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| MPS Heroes: |
| Joe and Maggie are heroes because they inspire me and the rest of my family to look to the future to help find treatments and cures for MPS. |
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| Words of Wisdom: |
| Don’t let the grief associated with MPS define your child or yourself. |
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| Personal Diagnosis Experience: |
| Joe was suspected to have a storage disease at age 3 ½ because he was dropping words and his spleen was enlarged. Over a year later, we learned that he had MPS III through a skin biopsy. It was a depressing time and not handled well by the local health professionals not familiar with MPS. Our experience improved greatly when we got in touch with a clinician who is familiar with the disorders. We always knew Maggie had a similar condition because of the similar symptoms.
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