‘What can a pain specialist do for you, anyway?’
First in a series. “All right, I have to go. Bye, Sherry,” my then-new pain specialist said. “I hope I won’t see you for a few months.” That was a few days after he’d administered a caudal…
Author Archives: Sherry Toh
Why I’m seeking spinal fusion surgery at age 25, despite the risks
I’ll confess: When I wished for a spinal fusion in my teens, it was for cosmetic reasons. This was before kyphoscoliosis — an abnormal curvature of the spine both sideways and forward —…
After more than a decade without one, I have a new power wheelchair
I’ve never understood why some people are weird about wheelchairs. Why the pity? Why think needing to use one is one of the worst things someone could face? I blame my first power wheelchair for my inability to understand. I got it when I was about 9 from…
The importance of a knowledgeable medical team to an SMA patient
“Let me go, Mum,” I begged. It was Day 2 of a harrowing hospital stay. My chest had been hurting and feeling tight, nonstop. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I was tachycardic, with a heart rate in the 120s to the 140s. I needed a urinary catheter.
Becoming a video game writer is all about choices
My introduction to a branching dialogue system in a role-playing game happened in 2019, the first time I played Dragon Age: Inquisition. The character I’d just created was a prisoner suspected of decimating a holy site in the fictional world of Thedas. As such, she was being…
Finally, I was diagnosed with ADHD. Here’s what that means
“You and our baby brother should count yourselves lucky,” I told my brother Gabriel after my first appointment with a psychologist for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). “If I have ADHD, it means I have two disabilities and lost the genetic lottery twice, yet you guys are fine.” Gabriel…
Writing a children’s book helped me shed light on growing up with SMA
If you had a chance to fictionalize your life in a children’s book, how would you do it? Would you make the protagonist yourself, or would it be a loved one while you are relegated to a secondary role? Would you depict an ideal version of yourself, a character…
We need to redesign society’s systems for true disability inclusion
“So, how are you? What have you been up to?” I asked my friend Phoebe Chua back in November. It’d been a decade since we last saw each other. But we’d spontaneously reconnected and decided to go to a movie together. I wanted to know everything about her…
‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’: Why I relate to this Swift song
If I owned a calendar, its December through April would be stained with tears. The square where Dec. 16, 2023, lands would have angry-looking ink blotches on it — to represent how I felt on my 25th birthday. My ex-girlfriend and I broke up on that day. I cursed…
SMA reminds me of the importance of having a support system
When you’re living with SMA, you quickly learn that you cannot function without someone else’s help. One of my earliest memories is of a nurse telling me that she’d asked doctors to remove my nasogastric tube for me. I must’ve been 3 at the time. My parents…