About
Faith
I contracted EMS in July of 1989 and was diagnosed in December of that
year soon after turning 40 years of age. Born in Virginia where I grew up on a dairy
farm, I enjoyed a healthy childhood and young adulthood. I graduated with honors
in 1972 from James Madison University in Virginia with a degree in Music Education
and spent the next 23 years teaching music, mostly as a private piano teacher. EMS
ruined my hands so that I cannot play the piano literature I had learned over many
years of study. That is one thing that EMS took from from me: the joy and feel of
a piano keyboard when playing advanced piano repertoire. My hands seemed to shrink
because of EMS, leaving me with areas of sclerodermiform skin on various parts of
my body. But I also have other EMS manifestations, including chronic pain in various
parts of my body.
As a volunteer in our community at church and in the local
music organization, I had enjoyed many worthwhile endeavors prior to getting EMS.
I married in my mid-20s and had a son, who was not quite 12 years old when I got
sick. EMS changed his life forever, just as it has affected in diverse ways the lives
of all my closest relatives and friends. Illness does that. Chronic, disabling illness
at a younger-than-expected age especially does that. I had to stop teaching piano
lessons as well as give up writing free-lance magazine articles for a regional magazine.
Like many others with EMS, I fought for and won disability status.
In the
early winter of 1995, after being asked to be Newsletter Editor for the national
non-profit organization for EMS, I agreed to serve in that voluntary position and
continued in it until October of 1999. In addition, at one time or another, l held
other positions in that support group, including Acting President and President;
I worked on committees, answered a lot of web site e-mail, and talked to researchers,
persons in the media, and many persons who have EMS. Through these experiences, I
gained a broad understanding of EMS and empathy for those with our difficult disease.
I've decided it would be a shame to let that experience go to waste. Though
I can't serve on boards or in permanent positions in organizations, I am able to
work at my own pace via e-mail, and I am still able to write effectively, when I
summon the will. Physically, EMS limits me greatly; my cognitive functioning remains
pretty good, all things considered, for which I am grateful. Otherwise, I am nearly
an invalid, unable to drive at all anymore, unable to travel much, dependent on my
wonderful husband to take me to all appointments and social engagements, which I
attend infrequently due to EMS. Looks are deceiving, my mother used to tell me. She
was so right! One can appear pretty healthy but be far from well. Sometimes pictures
or outside looks do not tell the whole story, especially with a disease like EMS,
and this fact works against me and others with the disease, who "seem"
to look okay to others.
I am always glad to assist anyone who has questions
about EMS, but please be sure you have read my DISCLAIMER which appears at the bottom
of the Home Page.
Faith Rumph
Article
by Thomas J. Moore featuring Faith (appeared in The Washingtonian a
few years ago)
Title of article: "Big Trouble in the Health Store"
Thomas
J Moore's Web Site (home page)
Faith
Rumph's Story: Eosinophilia-Myalgia Syndrome (a longer version of how I got
EMS on www.sclero.org)
I welcome e-mail: faith_rumph@yahoo.com