Desiree Jennings, who has great difficulty walking forwards, completed an eight kilometer run in Reston, VA on Saturday.
Jennings suffers from dystonia, a sometimes severe muscle disorder. Different muscle groups are affected by the condition, and sometimes they are affected differently. The 25 year old woman, who, until a few weeks ago was a cheerleader for the Washington Redskins, now has tremendous difficulty walking forwards. But she can walk backwards fairly well. And she can run forwards. She also suffers from seizures and has difficulty eating.Her condition is getting worse. “My neck and tongue are not moving anymore”, Jennings told reporters before the race. “They’re paralyzed; that started yesterday.”

At the beginning of the race, friends on either side of Desiree helped push her forward until she reached running speed. She then could begin jogging on her own, and she completed the eight kilometer course in just under an hour.

Jennings blames the sudden onset of her disorder on a seasonal flu shot she got at a supermarket in late August. She became ill about ten days after the inoculation.

The Food and Drug Administration says it has received no other reports of adverse reactions from that batch of dead-virus seasonal flu vaccine.

Immunology researcher Peter Hotez, at George Washington University, said earlier in the week that flu shots are well researched and very safe. Hotez, who is both an M.D. and a Ph.D., strongly recommends that people in high risk groups get inoculated against swine flu. He warns that pregnant women appear to be particularly susceptible to the H1N1 virus.

“Throughout the country, now, there are pregnant women that are on respirators, on life support, because they haven’t gotten the vaccine”, Dr. Hotez warned. Asked if his own wife were pregnant, would he recommend the H1N1 vaccination, Hotez replied: “She would be the first in line.”

Desiree Jennings is unconvinced of the safety of vaccinations, and is hoping her physicians and consulting doctors from Generation Rescue can figure out a way to arrest the progress of the debilitating condition that has completely changed her life.

GENERATION RESCUE HAS SET UP A SPECIAL WEB PAGE IN DESIREE’S NAME. IT INCLUDES A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM DESIREE, AND MORE ON HER STORY, PLUS LINKS TO FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT DYSTONIA.

http://www.generationrescue.org/desir…

Forwomenonline.com