WEBVTT

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You know what?

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Where I am now with XEOMIN,
I'm still doing something

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to fill my soul.

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My name is Dona Norton.

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We are at Ocean City, New Jersey,
about a block from the ocean.

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I can't imagine not being an artist.

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I can't imagine not being creative.

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With embroidery,

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I started actually doing it
when I was in high school,

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and it was sort of a hippie thing.

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I think it's just something
I feel in my soul.

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When I lost that,

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I lost a big part of myself.

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I have a condition
called benign essential blepharospasm,

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which means that I can't control
the muscles around my eyes.

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My eyes will slam shut
without any rhyme or reason.

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They just close.

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You feel like
you have sand and glass in your eyes.

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There are a lot of people that have

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what I have will shut themselves in.

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It was about 22 years ago.

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One day in the office, I was trying

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to put a whole big order
into the computer,

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and all the sudden it was like a light

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switch went off and I couldn't see.

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So that was when I started mourning

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the loss of me.

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Couldn’t drive.

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Work stopped.

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I was really, really sad.

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And I'd never been sad my whole life.

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I saw many different kinds of doctors.

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No one could figure it out.

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And then finally, I went to a neurologist.

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He looked at me right away
and said, you have blepharospasm.

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Not only did I lose my

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life, basically,
my whole expression was gone.

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I lost my smile.

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I lost my joy.

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And I was ripe and ready for XEOMIN.

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With XEOMIN. I got my smile back.

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And you know what?

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I decided to choose joy.

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From that moment

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on, I can feel that I can control my eyes.

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I can control my expression.

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Where I am now, I get probably 10

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to 20 injections around my eyes.

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It takes about 15 to 20 minutes
to have that done,

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and probably if you are needle phobe
person,

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you would think that it's painful,
but it's really not.

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I actually enjoy it

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now, because I know it's going to bring me
relief.

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And I actually will go in now
with other patients who are scared

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and hold their hand
and assist them in injections.

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With XEOMIN the joy is still there.

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For the last couple of years.

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I'm doing a peace sign now, which I love

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because I just feel like

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if I can just spread a little bit
more kindness and peace on this earth

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one jacket at a time,

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oh, it would just be, you know, wonderful.

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Well, it's a mission because I chose Joy.

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I needed to start something

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that would reach people outside of me.

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Hi, how you doing?

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Good, how you doing today?

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Good, I just made some new stuff,
going to hang them up on the rack.

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Hang them up.

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My husband and I started thinking about

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what can we do for our community.

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There are people here
that are really desperate.

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They really need our help.

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Now we have a huge

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thrift store and we have a food pantry
there.

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It's called Second Chance
because everyone needs one.

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That's what I want to work towards.

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Making changes in people's lives.

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With XEOMIN i'm
so blessed to be able to do that.

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So I've come to a place in my life
where I enjoy being more active

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in ministering to people
that have blepharospasm.

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There are support groups,
and I actually have one that

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I go to quite often,
but now that I can reach out,

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that I can look at other people,

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I can say, do you feel like you

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maybe have a problem with your eyes?

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And I usually say it can be different.

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You don't need to suffer.
