WOOD VILLAGE, Ore. (KOIN) — Christine Getman and Scottie Foertmeyer plan to get married in September.
“I’m excited for the wedding,” she told KOIN 6 News. “I keep telling him I just want my sparkly dress and my cake. I’m in it for the cake.”
The two of them met on a dating website shortly after he moved to Portland more than 3 years ago. They weren’t looking for anything serious, but their shared sense of humor helped make it happen.
But before their first date, she called and told him she was disabled.
“I said, ‘I don’t care. You’re funny,'” Foertmeyer said. “We went out and it was a rad time.”
Christine Getman, who is now 29, was not expected to live past the age of 2. Her parents were concerned that she wasn’t developing, and when she was just 14 months old she was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA.)
“They told my mom to say her goodbyes and that I wouldn’t make it past the age of 2,” she said. “But I’m still here.”
She’s been in a wheelchair since then.
“You should have seen the walls in our house when I first got that chair,” she said. “Don’t give a 2-year-old an electric wheelchair.”
Since that time, she said her parents tried to give her the most normal, mainstream life possible.
“That’s why I’ve made it to where I am and the life that I have now because I’ll accept nothing less than this.”
She graduated from Portland State University with a double major in community health and psychology. She’s currently involved in grant writing, graphic design and promotion for her family’s non-profit, Wheel To Walk Foundation.
But she’s taking a break for a little while — maybe as long as 15 weeks — to take part in a clinical trial in Boston to research SMA.
Last August, she saw an announcement on CureSMA.org about new clinical trials, including accepting adult patients for the first time. Usually, she said, researchers focus on infants and children as they best time to stop the progression of the disease.
She decided to apply for the trial.
“I feel like it’s time to — I won’t say ‘take one for the team’ — but this is a really huge deal for SMA at large,” she told KOIN 6 News.
“I would love to have a little more energy, maybe get some strength back in my hands. I mean, I’m realistic. I’m not expecting to go running next year.”
But she hopes the research helps in the big picture — “that we can prevent or catch SMA early-on when it’s diagnosed, like when I was 14 months old.”
She’d like to see a new drug “that will prevent the progression, it will save your baby’s life, that’s where it matters. It’s not about me but it’s still a really cool and amazing opportunity.”
She would love to be able to do a simple thing like hug her fiance’.
“I mean it’s so silly and simple but I can’t just reach out and touch him. I can’t hug him,” Christine said.
They live together and she has caregivers as she lives an independent lifestyle.
“I just don’t take no for an answer,” she said. “I know how I want my life to be and I’ve made it happen with the help of others.”
Her smart and sassy attitude also includes high heels.
“See, the cool thing about not walking is that I can wear the most obnoxious heels and I won’t trip. I look at the bright side: Good shoes and they don’t wear out.”
Filed under: Editor's Pick, Health, Human Interest, Multnomah County, Oregon, Portland
