“I often think of my life in two parts,” says Jodi Young. “There was ‘before my mom got sick’ and then there’s everything after.”
For Jodi, childhood took an unexpected turn in 2008 when her mother, Brenda, a devoted nurse and parent, began experiencing a series of inexplicable health challenges at just 44 years old. A stroke, seizures, and a series of worsening symptoms led to a life changing diagnosis of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS), a rare and complex mitochondrial disease. |