'Diagnose and adios'*

Judge Judy

I don't watch Judge Judy, in fact I don't even watch television but on her February 14 episode the following exchange apparently occurred:

Judge Judy said "What is your disability?"

Girl "I have MS, multiple sclerosis"

the judge replies "YOU LOOK FINE TO ME"!

Hope she isn't the Judge on this guys case.
Judge Judy lives on the web here.  Send her "Honor" a message here.

Anyone capture it on youtube?

Of late, death has seized too many of Alaska's remaining giants

The unique nature of Alaska comes not from the beauty of it's land but from the independant nature of it's people. Traveling in Botswana, Africa I met a British couple that had spent two weeks in Alaska and met one 'local'. That's like visiting an art musum with your eyes closed.

I meet Herbie in 1980 after one of his legendary Iditarod sprints. Susan's daughter is in dance with my daughter, we worked stage crew on the Nutcracker just two Decembers ago. Most Alaskan's could probably tell you a story or two about these folks, they will be greatly missed.

"Statistics don't exist for this kind of thing, but Alaska must lead the nation when it comes to living legends. The state is young enough that some of its first leaders and explorers are still around. Its vastness and mystique act like a magnet for the kind of people who become legends. Its remoteness and hostile climate inspire the resourcefulness and resiliency that produce legends.

We walk with giants because they walk with us."

Read more here. (registration required)

Representative not giving up seat because of multiple sclerosis

State Rep. Dan Stevenson, a Democrat from Highland, said he was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but doesn't plan to retire from the Indiana House of Representatives.

Stevenson, who is unopposed in the November election, said he expects to keep up with the busy pace of the 2007 legislative session by using treatments for the disease, which affects the central nervous system.

More here.

No Fear, no frills

Liz Carr: "Many people use the 'right' language, but still see me as a cripple." Photograph: Graham Turner

"There is an awkward silence as the 400-strong audience at the Komedia comedy club in Brighton watch Liz Carr make her way up a ramp at the side ofthe stage. Carr, the last of 12 stand-up comedians to take the stage,knows her entrance in a wheelchair is the cause of the tension, but she soon brings the house down with a cocktail of caustic observational gags about disability and sexuality."

Chuckle here.
Hear here.

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Mountain climber takes on challenge of multiple sclerosis

Maggie Schneider wasn't sleeping well. Her head ached; her stomach rumbled. She was more than halfway into a 39-mile trek up Mt. Everest with a leg left numb by multiple sclerosis.

At 11,000 feet, she decided to put off taking the injection that would help her.

"I will postpone my shot until we get to another rest day in three days. That is only two days late, so that will work," she wrote in an e-mail to her husband, Paul, from Namche Bazaar, a regional trading center almost halfway up the mountain.

She gets flu-like symptoms for 24 hours after the shots and wanted to delay that until she could rest, she said, shrugging off the choice during an interview at her office at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is an adviser.

I'm always adjusting my "Avonex" days. The day after is always so unpredictable.

Climb higher here.

Pathbreaking Comedian Richard Pryor Dies

Richard Pryor, the groundbreaking comedian whose profanely personal insights into race relations and modern life made him one of Hollywood's biggest stars, died of a heart attack Saturday. He was 65.

Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. after being taken to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

More here.

Pictures here.

MTV coverage here.

Richard's website declares "I Ain't Dead Yet, M!$% F%$#!" (for adults)

Butcher says she will conquer leukemia

With the single-minded focus she once applied to winning 1,100-mile sled dog races, four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher has launched a seven-month campaign to beat her leukemia and an associated blood disease.

"My whole life has been about challenges -- I love challenges," she said Friday.

More here.

NPR : Teri Garr's Story: 'Speedbumps' and Progress

Teri Garr on Fresh Air

Actress Teri Garr is probably best known for her role in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. She has also worked with other many other well-known directors in her varied career. Her first role was in Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation. She was in Stephen Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Sydney Pollack's Tootsie.

Before becoming an actress, Garr was a dancer, following in the footsteps of her mother, who was a Rockette. Garr danced in a number of Elvis Presley films, on the Sony and Cher Comedy Hour TV show, and on the show Shivaree.

In 2002, Garr was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis -- a ruling that made sense of the symptoms that had plagued her for 20 years. Her new memoir is Speedbumps: Flooring It through Hollywood. The book was written with Henriette Mantel.

Streaming version of interview and book excerpt here.

Red Planet scientist battles MS

The scientist who led Britain's Beagle 2 mission to Mars has told BBC News he has multiple sclerosis (MS).

Professor Colin Pillinger, from the Open University, said he had been diagnosed with a progressive form of the neurological condition in May.

Launch here.

Her art is painstaking, personal

With the help of friends and volunteers, a Spring Hill woman, battling multiple sclerosis, is producing an independant film of her self-published novelette.

More here.

Melodic Banjoist Bobby Thompson Died

Bobby Thompson has been credited with inventing the "melodic" playing style of the banjo and is regarded by many as one of the top bluegrass and jazz style banjoists died Wednesday after a long illness. Bill Keith and Thompson were the early innovators of the melodic banjo style. Thompson has been ill for some time with Multiple Sclerosis and forced him into retirement nearly 15 years ago.

Strum here.

Body and Spirit: Ancient martial art has some medical backing, say experts

About eight years ago, Mitch Saret was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

That's bad news for anybody. For a martial arts instructor, it's particularly devastating.

Saret reached a point where he couldn't do one somersault, one set of jumping jacks, without incapacitating himself for the rest of the day.

Then he got into Tai Chi.

Grasp the bird's tail here.

MS takes away court reporter's ability to write

Dick Kennedy was a court reporter who suddenly discovered he couldn't write.

"It was back in 1991 and one day, my right side started to cramp, kind of like a Charlie Horse," he remembered. "I had trouble with my left leg as well. It disabled me for four to five days."

There was also pain associated with both exacerbations and bad headaches. All that forced Kennedy to seek out a neurologist who ultimately in 1997 made the diagnosis of relapsing, remitting multiple sclerosis.

More here.

The Infinite Mind: Multiple Sclerosis

"The difference between those who get well and those that don’t comes down to those that take this disease as a catastrophe rather than an opportunity do not get well."

Emily Mann

In this hour, we explore the chronic neurological disease Multiple Sclerosis. Guests include Dr. Randall Schapiro, founder and director of the Fairview Multiple Sclerosis Center and Minneapolis Clinic Multiple Sclerosis Program; Dr. Patricia O'Looney, director of biomedical research programs at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society; Barbara Paley-Israel, a writer who was diagnosed with MS in 1986 and has become an advocate for people with the disease; social worker Deborah Miller, Director of Comprehensive Care at the Mellen Center for MS Treatment and Research, part of The Cleveland Clinic; TONY award-winning director and playwright Emily Mann; and special commentator Zoe Koplowitz, author of Winning Spirit: Life Lessons Learned in Last Place.

Read more.
Or listen.

Great program, listen to it more than once.
This is from the weekly radio program, The Infinite Mind, find it on your local public radio station.

PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE / It's a family decision

"ONLY YOU can know," my grandmother said.

After a two-year bout with multiple sclerosis, my father had rapidly deteriorated and was connected to one machine that breathed for him and another that digested for him.

For nearly a year, I sat in his room every day listening to the artificial breaths, staring at the slow drips in his IV, following the thick, milky-colored liquid traveling slowly along his feeding tube.

"Is this what he would have wanted?" I would ask my grandparents.

"Only you can know," they would say.

More here.

Link to the Alaska Advance Health Care Directive form.

What to Tell the Boss After a Diagnosis

Kenneth Bandler has multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the central nervous system. For over a decade, he kept it a secret.

Whisper here.

MS is just a part of life for Foulston

In retrospect, Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston says, the years of not knowing what was wrong, of being brushed off by doctors, of asking herself whether she just might be a nut case probably were for the good.

If someone had told her 30 years ago that she was disabled, she might have lived her life differently.

Instead, she proved to herself that, while multiple sclerosis will always be a part of her life, it doesn't control her.

More here.

Larry King show

I've been in Honduras traveling for the last 4 weeks, missed this one but here is the transcripts from the Larry King show on MS. It featured Meredith Vieira from "The View" and her husband, Emmy-winning TV journalist Richard Cohen, Actress Teri Garr, Alan Osmond and Mark Barondess.

More here

Jordan Sigalet announces he has multiple sclerosis :: Bowling Green senior goalie first diagnosed in March

Bowling Green State University student-athlete Jordan Sigalet has made public that he suffers from multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. Sigalet, a senior goaltender for the Falcon hockey team, was diagnosed in early March, 2004, with this disease.

Over the past nine months, Sigalet has missed just three games due to complications from MS, including March 4, 2004, at Western Michigan, December 4, 2004, versus Michigan State, and December 11, 2004, versus #4 Michigan. He has spearheaded a 2004-05 campaign which has nationally-ranked BGSU recording its best start since the 1995-96 season and is among the top teams in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

"After discussing this with my family and giving it much thought, I have decided it is time to make public that I suffer from multiple sclerosis," said Sigalet. "By doing this I hope to somehow help others that have this disease and possibly learn more myself. The support from my family, teammates, and coaches over the past nine months has been awesome. I can't thank them enough."

More here.

MS, in film and fiction

Dr. Richard Pellegrino of Hot Springs has a big personality, and he’s using it to achieve a big goal. The energetic, funny and outgoing neurologist has put his medical mind to work on movie making and mystery writing, all for the cause of promoting an understanding of multiple sclerosis.

More here.

Authentic Women's Sports Magazine Started by Woman with Multiple Sclerosis

Readers won’t find a “thinner thighs in thirty days” or “sculpt a better butt” article in Dandelion magazine. Instead, Dandelion focuses on the strength, confidence, and joy women find through outdoor adventure, sports, and travel. Michelle Theall, a former Women’s Sports   Fitness Magazine alumni and the founder of Dandelion, realized that a huge market segment was being ignored...

...The title launched in spring of 2003, just as Theall learned that she had Multiple Sclerosis. “It’s ironic, isn’t it?” Theall says. “Yet, having a disease that threatens my ability to remain active has only increased my determination to do so. I have no guarantees that what I can physically do this year, I’ll be able to do next. But none of us do. So, the message is that life is short, and we need to get the most from it.”

More here.
And here.

Man planned suicide, friend says

With his legs failing him and the ravages of multiple sclerosis eroding his well-buffed physique, Charles Fariala spent his last few months in solitude, not answering his friend's e-mails even as he was online, meticulously surfing the Internet.

He was searching for a way to die.

Eventually the 36-year-old found the information on one of the Internet's suicide sites. It gave him instructions on how to take his life, which he did Sunday. A close friend said he planned months ahead and wanted to die in the arms of his mother, Marielle Houle.

More here.

Here and Now : Jonathan Katz Lives and Laughs with MS

Jonathan Katz' life has been a real barrel of laughs. A Boston-based stand up comic, he contributed to Comedy Central's early success with the wildly popular "Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist," the animated shrink to the comic stars such as Katherine O'Hara.

Jonathan Katz is also a songwriter, and a compilation of his tunes is called "Easy Listening...but Not That Easy." He co-wrote "House of Games" with David Mamet, appeared as an actor in "Daddy Day Care" and authored a book titled "To Do Lists of the Dead."

Jonathan Katz was diagnosed in 1997 with Multiple Sclorosis. Jonathan Katz joins us in the studio to talk about keeping your wits about you, and being witty, when you're diagnosed with a debilitating disease.

Listen here

MS can't keep man from writing about his travails

At age 55, David T. Williams lives like a prisoner of war, sharing the same space and time with his enemy.

Unlike global conflict, his foe is intensely personal and goes by the technical name of multiple sclerosis.

More here.

Downey, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an inspiration to many

Yes, Khiawatha Downey has multiple sclerosis. The offensive lineman has talked about virtually nothing but M.S. since the San Francisco 49ers signed him in June.

Yes, he takes weekly injections of Avonex to fight off the advances of the disease.

No, he doesn't feel any symptoms.

Yes, he takes pride in being a role model and hopes to be an inspiration for others with the disease.

More here.

A home of his own

Paralyzed from the neck down, John Hinchman was told he'd have to live in a nursing home for the rest of his life. But this week, he moved into his own home in Juneau with his family as a recipient of a federal grant to help people move from a nursing home back into the community.

More here.

Funicello still raising funds, waiting for a cure

If I'd encountered 62-year-old Annette Funicello on the street, I'd have never guessed.

Five decades ago, as a television Mouseketeer, she was the first crush for a generation of adolescent boys.

A decade later, her "Beach Blanket" pairing with Frankie Avalon was packing drive-in movie theaters across the country.

And by the late 1970s, she was the wholesome housewife trying to convince choosy mothers like mine to switch from Jif to Skippy peanut butter.

Today, Funicello has advanced multiple sclerosis -- diagnosed in 1987, publicly acknowledged in 1992...

Some $42 million, or 23 percent, of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's $184.5 million income from 2003 went to administration, fund raising and other overhead, according to the MS Society.

M-O-R-E-H-E-R-E-N-O-W.

The Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders here.

August 22, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wyoming State lawmaker diagnosed with MS

State Rep. Becket Hinckley has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and is talking about his health situation openly as he seeks re-election.

Hinckley, who also is an assistant district attorney with the Laramie County District Attorney's Office, said he chose to share the personal information to put an end to rumors and show that having MS, a disease that attacks the central nervous system, doesn't have to slow you down.

"I'm a former college ball player," Hinckley, R-Cheyenne, said. "You get knocked down, you get up, dust yourself off and get back in the game."

More here.

August 22, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Richard Pryor's Latest Wife: Ultimate Survivor

The current Mrs. Richard Pryor sure is a survivor. The iconic black American comedian pulled a gun on Jennifer Lee, beat her up and was wired to the moon on cocaine most of the time. They divorced in 1982 but later remarried.

Now she lovingly tends him through multiple sclerosis and the bullets from the gun have been framed on a bulletin board as a macabre memento of tempestuous times.

More here

May 31, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Seattle Times: Sports: Squiggy is in the house: 'Laverne and Shirley' star now M's scout

They never forget Squiggy.

David Lander pulls his car into the special lot using the yellow badge that says baseball and parks in the closest spot by hanging a blue tag that says handicapped. Grabbing a bag that carries the tools of his job as a scout for the Mariners, he walks slowly to the ballpark with a limp from multiple sclerosis.

More here.

May 19, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gloria Estefan's Father

...Born Gloria Fajardo on September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba, her family escaped to Miami in 1959 when Fidel Castro took over the country. Two years later, her father took part in the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion. He got caught and was incarcerated for a year and a half. After his return to the United States, he joined the army and served two years in Vietnam, where he was exposed to Agent Orange, which may have contributed to the disease he was diagnosed with upon his return, multiple sclerosis.

Anyone know anything else about a link between Agent Orange and MS?
More here.

May 16, 2004 in environment, people | Permalink | Comments (1)

Stars gather for touching story of Danny Wallace

Danny Wallace recalls the moment he knew his football career and, for a period, much of his life was over. It was one evening back in 1995 when he turned out for the reserves during a frustrating 18-month spell at Birmingham City. "The whole of one side of my body felt really, really heavy," he recalls. "Kicking the ball was like kicking a balloon full of water. My foot felt like that and I felt like that all down my right side as well."

Wallace had ended up in Birmingham's second string after one of the most glittering careers in English football had slipped into alarming decline. Little did he know, and it wasanother year before he found out, that he was suffering from multiple sclerosis, a condition that attacks the central nervous system.

That's soccer for you Yankees. More here.

May 16, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fighting MS, Downey hopes to make NFL roster

"We wouldn't touch him."

That was the message agent Joe Linta received from an American Football Conference executive this spring about his client, Khiawatha Downey, one of the better college offensive linemen in the nation last season.

It wasn't Downey's size, his 40-yard dash time or his attitude that turned the executive away, Linta said. Rather it was two words in his medical chart.
Following the 2000 season, when he was a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh, Downey was being examined for a shoulder injury when doctors discovered he had multiple sclerosis, a disease that attacks the central nervous system.

Though Downey, like many people with MS, had no symptoms and may not until he's much older, NFL teams treated him as if he had leprosy.

More here.

May 12, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mapping A Cure

The symptoms came and went for almost two years, but by the summer of 2000, Art Mellor ’85 couldn’t ignore the numbness in his hands and other odd sensations any longer. He consulted his doctor and was soon diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a neurological disease with no known cause or cure. “It was like a stool was kicked out from under me,” he recalls. At 37, he was in the prime of life, had founded three high-tech companies, had a great girlfriend, and drove a spiffy, royal-blue Porsche Boxster. Within six months, however, the diagnosis spurred him to leave the high-tech world and launch a new startup: a nonprofit aimed at accelerating the search for a cure for multiple sclerosis.

More here.

April 20, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Larry King and Montel Williams

LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Montel Williams. He's been pushed to the brink of death by an incurable and unpredictable disease -- multiple sclerosis.
How does he cope with it?

Transcripts here

March 8, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (1)

MS catches up with Coach

In early December, Winslow High School girls basketball coach Jim Poulin came home worn down from a preseason practice. At that point, he told his wife, Diane, that he would have to stop coaching after this season.

This was a familiar conversation for the couple after Poulin was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995. Diane, knowing Jim's desire to keep coaching, would always remind him of that and urge him to stay on the job.

This time, the conversation was different, with Diane agreeing with Jim that he needed to step down. After guiding the Black Raiders to a 14-5 record this season, Poulin made it official recently, giving up the head coaching job after nine seasons coaching the girls varsity and 30 years of coaching basketball at Winslow.

More here

March 3, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Off to see the 'Wizard'

One of the Glendale Union High School District's treasured teachers is retiring after 30 years of casting, directing and producing - and sometimes holding sets together with duct tape and a prayer.

But before she leaves, 54-year-old Esta Rosevear and her Greenway High School students are putting on the production of a lifetime: The Wizard of Oz. One of the original "Munchkins" who appeared in the 1939 movie, Margaret Pelligrini, will be the guest of honor for opening night on Tuesday. Pelligrini has been invited to take the stage 15 minutes before curtain and tell tales of life in the Technicolor world of Munchkin Land.

Follow the yellow brick road.

"One of my lifelong dreams has been to really see this country," Rosevear said. "I have glaucoma and multiple sclerosis, and there's no way to know when life might become difficult. I want to eat lobster in Maine, watch a Florida sunset, visit Yosemite Valley and see a bit of Canada."

February 27, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Journalist and Author Richard Cohen on NPR

He's a former senior producer for CBS News and CNN with three Emmys to his credit. For the past 30 years he's lived with multiple sclerosis, even continuing to work in a war zone shortly after the diagnosis and with failing eyesight. He's written a new memoir called Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness/A Reluctant Memoir.

Listen to the FreshAir interview here.
Buy the book here.

February 24, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Farwell Pat

Much loved husband, son, brother, uncle and friend Patrick Joseph Ferree lost a valiant fight for life and succumbed to cancer at home, surrounded by family and friends, in the early morning hours of Feb. 15, 2004, while the snow he loved so much fell quietly outside.

More here.

Just returned from Pat's memorial service. He was a wonderful man that left us much too soon.

February 22, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

America's can do kids

For a while, 40 years ago, Jimmie Heuga and Billy Kidd knew what it was like to be the Beatles.

They were young, good looking and were the focus of their universe. On Feb. 8, 1964, the dashing young men became the first Americans to win Olympic medals in alpine skiing.

...After their 1964 medals, Heuga and Kidd continued successful careers in ski racing, Kidd racing in another Olympics and then joining the professional circuit. Heuga also raced in the 1968 Olympics ,but was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1970, at the height of his racing career. Ever the optimist, Heuga took his diagnosis and turned it into a positive force in his life.

Doctors at the time didn't know much about treating MS. They followed the conventional wisdom of the time and advised Heuga to abstain from any physical exercise for six years, which they thought would keep the disease from getting worse.

Heuga has many gifts and natural talents, but leisure is not one of them. When he saw his emotional and physical well-being slowly decline, he rebelled.

More here.

Vist the Heuga Center here.

February 21, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (1)

My Story: A Photographic Essay on Life with Multiple Sclerosis - Demos Medical Publishing

In a series of dramatic essays and photographs by the renowned San Francisco-based photographer Amelia Davis, My Story is an evocative description of what it is like to live with multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease that affects about 350,000 Americans and whose cause is still not entirely known. The essays and accompanying photographs in this highly engaging, beautifully illustrated book poignantly portray the lives of thirty-two men and women from the ages of seventeen to seventy and of various ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds who share the challenge of living with MS. Some, like Amelia, use no mobility aids, while others use canes, wheelchairs, or electric scooters. All have had to face the challenges and limitations that MS has imposed upon their lives, and each has devised unique and often creative coping strategies. Accompanying each essay are commentaries by family members and friends that express their own personal feelings and experiences of living with this disease.

More here.

Buy it here.

February 12, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Southern exposure

Sitting in his Spenard apartment, talking about Ernest Shackleton's polar survival story -- featured in a museum exhibit opening here next week -- 98-year-old Norman Vaughan's blue eyes twinkled at the question.

Did he ever get seriously cold on his own journey to Antarctica?

Why, yes, answered Vaughan, the last surviving member of Adm. Richard E. Byrd's historic 1928-30 Antarctica expedition -- in which Byrd flew the first plane over the South Pole after his men built "Little America," the first settlement on the continent.

More here.

More on Vaughan here and here.

Or read his books My Life of Adventure and With Byrd at the Bottom of the World.

In December 2005 Vaughan plans to spend his 100th birthday back in Antarctica.

February 8, 2004 in alaska, people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Barstow councilwoman faces up to new life with multiple sclerosis

Gloria Darling thought she was having a stroke Dec. 27 when she experienced a loss of vision, difficulty walking and numbness in her left arm and left leg.

A trip to the hospital that night — her birthday — led to a series of tests that, about a month later, revealed the cause of Darling's symptoms: multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease that affects the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves.

Though the businesswoman and city councilwoman says the disease has been difficult to accept, she's not letting it stop her.

More here.

February 8, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

More Montel...

Must have a book coming out soon.

Why did he choose to let it all out? "Because we [MS sufferers] need to stop lying about ourselves. We lie about the pain we're in. A lot of the reason my relationship with my wife, Grace, came apart was because I tried my best to pretend I wasn't in pain. I didn't want to say I needed help.

"I also knew that before anyone writes about this, about me and my disease, I better do it myself. It also gives me the opportunity to get the message out there - it's not a shame to be ill. It's not a disgrace. No one in my family had anything like this, anything neurological before, and yet my daughter has epilepsy, also neurological. We need to stop lying-no matter what the cost."

And the cost can be high for a star with a disease - especially a potentially debilitating one. "But even to say this, to admit [how seriously ill] I am, puts me and my career in jeopardy," he said.

"Talk-show host, fine - the [company] has accepted me [with my disease], but other projects? 'Uh, uh. He's got MS, get someone else.' " It is Hollywood, after all.

"I have extreme neuralgia. If I'm standing outside and someone brushes up against me - how do I describe it?-it's like when you strike your crazy [funny] bone. Take that feeling and times it by 100. Wherever you touch me.

"I used to want people only to see me at my best - now I don't. [When I'm in extreme pain], I tell my friends please, don't touch me. Please. Thank you. I can be sitting in the movies with someone I really like, and the popcorn bag brushes against me and I'm in torture. So I excuse myself and go to the bathroom - anything to not scream. The worst part, however, is what I do to myself sometimes. I can sit here for 14 hours straight and drive myself crazy waiting for it to come on."

More here.

January 3, 2004 in pain, people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Daughter has a hand in artist's labour of love

The work of disabled artist Charley Stimac is a labour of love - inspired by his love of labour.

Stimac has spent his life in blue-collar and industrial jobs, all the while chronicling the struggles of his co-workers through sketches and paintings.

Crippled the past 10 years by chronic multiple sclerosis, Stimac has had to borrow the hands of others to put the images in his mind to canvas.

More here.

January 3, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Montel's Suicide Attempts

Talk show host and motivational speaker Montel Williams says he nearly committed suicide after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. In his new book, "Climbing Higher," Williams says he wanted to die before the disease got worse. He loaded a .357 magnum and sat in his closet, spinning the barrel, hoping it would go off accidentally so his kids could collect on his insurance, according to an excerpt in the New York Post. He says he spent 45 minutes trying to get the gun to go off, to no avail.

More here.

January 3, 2004 in bummer, newly diagnosed, people, stress, stuff we don't like to talk about | Permalink | Comments (2)

Disabled painter doesn't let MS get in the way of his art

Priced anywhere from $100 to $1,000, the paintings of local artist Alex Tomic aren't expensive by contemporary standards. They take on considerably more value, though, considering the special effort it takes to produce them.

Tomic has multiple sclerosis, and there are days when he cannot lift his paint brush or otherwise control his body's movements.
"Sometimes my brush will just go flying across the room, as if someone else is in control of it," Tomic said.

Still, when the demon is at bay, and he's feeling inspired, the results can be impressive.

More here.

January 3, 2004 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bear Advocate an Enigma in Death

Come to Alaska, feed the bears.

Timothy Treadwell's death came just the way he had predicted. Treadwell and his girlfriend were mauled by a 1,000-pound grizzly bear last October in a remote section of Alaskan wilderness that Treadwell knew well after years of living among its bear population.

"He was a con artist, but boy, he pulled it off," Queeney said. "The man was truly a riddle wrapped in a sleeping bag. I don't know if any of us will ever know who he really was."

Eat this.

He was even a consultant on Disney's animated movie Brother Bear.

Bear researcher/preservationist/author Timothy Treadwell (Among Grizzlies: Living with Wild Bears in Alaska) also came to the Studio to offer his firsthand accounts and insights about these magnificent animals.

More here.

January 3, 2004 in alaska, animals, environment, people, the north, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0)

Skydiving, whitewater rafting with MS? You bet

Daily challenges for Jane Schmieding are not unlike the majestic mountain ranges that took her breath away on a recent trip to Alaska -- they're big and seemingly insurmountable at times.

But, like the piece of glacier that melted in her hand on that vacation, the daunting tasks that arise in her life are tackled one by one, and then they disappear.

"I usually find a way to do anything that I really want to do," she says.

More here.

December 21, 2003 in people, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0)

Winners

A Kentucky woman battling multiple sclerosis, and her husband, who is in a wheelchair, won a lottery jackpot yesterday.

Shirley and Rudolph Yearby's lone winning ticket will net them nearly $11 million after tax.

“Donate some money to the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, that's for what I have, and then also to the Kidney Foundation for my husband. He's been waiting for kidney for five years.”

They have no lofty goals. They will stay in their Okolona home. Shirley says MS is starting to take its toll and she's hoping a cure can be found.

Rudolph was recently turned down by the Veterans Association for help in buying a wheelchair. Now he can buy a new one on his own.

More here.

December 18, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Losers

During the week-long trial, the jury heard evidence that over five days in February, Stewart left his girlfriend of 30 years Rhonda Firmes in a coma while he smoked marijuana and drank beer before calling for help.

Stewart was being paid by the county to care for Firmes who has multiple sclerosis. Instead, though, he allowed her to become so dehydrated that her kidneys failed and she urinated blood. Paramedics responding to the home Feb. 24 found Firmes lying in her own waste and comatose. She remained in the coma for two months and continues to suffer long-term health effects.
Stewart was found in the backyard with bags of empty beer cans by sheriff’s deputies.

More here.

December 18, 2003 in bummer, people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Madlyn Rhue - Obituaries in the News

Madlyn Rhue, whose acting career spanned three decades and scores of TV appearances on shows ranging from "Perry Mason" to "Murder, She Wrote," died Tuesday. She was 68.

Rhue, who had multiple sclerosis, died from pneumonia and heart failure, the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital said.

Obit here.

More about Rhue here.

December 18, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Michael Muir

In 2001, Michael Muir made a horsedrawn journey across America, raising awareness about MS and inspiring others along the way. A new journey begins in October 2003 — The Thousand Mile Journey to the Gulf.

Lots more here.

Trot to Michael's website here.

December 16, 2003 in animals, people, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0)

Conquering Mt. McKinley

Old news, but interesting...

Clay Roscoe, 33, of Philadelphia, made it to 17,200 feet - higher than any other of the MS climbers - before a whiteout and 60 mph winds thwarted his attempts to reach the summit.

"We're not saying everyone with MS should climb mountains. We're saying ... stay active, stay positive."

Booker said she wants to take on McKinley again next summer.

"I came right off and said we have to do this again."
Climb this,

December 16, 2003 in accessability, advocacy, alaska, people, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0)

Realtor doesn't let MS stop her from giving 11/03/03

When PeggyAnn McConnochie was 15 years old, she answered the plea of a Spokane, Wash., disc jockey, who wanted youth to spend time with folks homebound by multiple sclerosis.

McConnochie organized a group, Youth Against MS. About 10 years later, McConnochie herself was diagnosed with the incurable disease that afflicts the nervous system.

More here.

December 16, 2003 in alaska, people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tica Seeks Better Access for All

By Suzy Madigan
Tico Times Staff

Heidy Arias is one of those waitresses whose natural warmth and enthusiasm inspires customers and colleagues alike at T.G.I. Friday's in Escazú, where she works.

"She's got a great sense of humor, so lots of people ask for her to wait on them," said Paulo Alpízar, T.G.I. Friday's service manager. "She's a great worker, better than some people who can walk."

Arias, who is confined to a wheelchair, successfully returned to work just two months after she lost the use of her legs in an accident.

Her determination to keep her job despite the difficulties involved stems from a deep conviction that she is in a wheelchair for a purpose - to be a vocal champion of people with disabilities and fight for their increased inclusion in Costa Rican life.

"My mission is to get to a point where people aren't surprised to see a person in a wheelchair doing normal things like everyone else," said the 23-year-old waitress.

Arias believes that until the country's infrastructure is fully adapted to allow equal access, people with handicaps will always be excluded from society.

"People with disabilities are not incorporated into society because places don't have wheelchair access, so they are shut away in their houses. I want to be their voice," she added.

In 1996, Costa Rica passed the Law for Equality of Opportunity for Disabled Persons [Law 7600], which aimed to increase access for disabled people throughout public and private sectors.

In July, the seven-year grace period for implementing the law expired, but much remains to be done for the country to be in compliance.

DETERMINED: Arias is a vocal champion for people with disabilities.
Tico Times/Jeffrey Arguedas
Arias says she is frustrated by the lack of progress.

"The government has fulfilled parts of the law, but not in totality," she said. "You'll go to a restaurant where there are disabled parking spaces, but then there will be ten steps to the entrance and no ramp."

Arias probably will never know who fired the gun that put her in a wheelchair a month before her 21st birthday, or why she was hit.

One night in February 2001, Arias, a Costa Rican drama and tourism student, was on her way to a nightclub with a friend. The taxi pulled up outside the club, and as they paid the driver, Arias suddenly felt an impact in her back, and the immediate loss of feeling in her legs.

A bullet had hit the car's trunk, ripped through the back seat and lodged itself in Arias' spine.

"When I felt the bullet, I knew immediately that I wouldn't walk again," she said. "I didn't need a doctor to tell me."

No one appeared to be in the street, and the police never discovered what happened, so Arias regards the tragedy as a bizarre "accident."

Despite the lack of answers, she refuses to wallow in bitterness or bewilderment, even though she occasionally wonders about the circumstances of that night.

"I want to get to heaven and speak with God and ask him what happened," she said. "I only want to know if the bullet was meant for me, not who did it. But I don't think about it. It's not important for me."

When she first returned to work at T.G.I. Friday's, she had to overcome diners' initial preconceptions and surprise at being served by someone in a wheelchair. Now, as she chats and jokes with tables of families, they respond animatedly to her.

"I went back to work because I'm a useful person, and I don't want to depend on other people," she said. "I get ¢10,000 monthly disability allowance, so I need to work to eat, buy medicine and have my own things."

Arias usually has to take taxis to get around because of the lack of buses with ramps or wheelchair space. Even when she is going short distances from her home in Escazú, she often is unable to use the sidewalks because of obstacles such as curbs and deep gutters, and so is forced to travel on the road, despite the dangers.

She says she personally knew three people who have died in their wheelchairs crossing streets in San José.

"People in cars shout at me, 'Why don't you try the sidewalk?', and so I shout back, 'Why don't you try my wheelchair?'"

Arias points out it is not just basic transportation and services that are lacking in Costa Rica. Many entertainment and tourism options also are off-limits to people in wheelchairs.

"People think that those with disabilities don't enjoy themselves, they don't go to the beach and so on. But without access, it's because they can't," she pointed out.

Just before International Day of Disabled Persons, Dec. 3, the Federation of Costa Rican Organizations for Persons with Disabilities (FECODIS) and other groups organized a seminar on accessible tourism.

The forum strategically highlighted the potential economic benefits for businesses that expand their client base to include people with permanent and temporary disabilities, such as pregnant women, children, elderly, blind and deaf people and those in wheelchairs.

Andrea Vargas of FECODIS, who also uses a wheelchair, said she would like to see the tourism industry opened up to everyone.

"The tourism industry must consider people with disabilities as any tourist, so they have to adapt the environment to [their] needs," she said.

The Rainforest Aerial Tram, located 45 minutes from San José on the highway to the Caribbean coast, is one tourist destination that has recognized that improved access for disabled tourists means increased profits.

Arias and I decided to take the bus there to check out the facilities, and take a ride on the renowned cable car over the forest.

Rather than flagging down a bus mid-route, we left from the Caribeño terminal, so we had time to find a helpful passenger willing to carry Arias up the stairs onto the bus.

At the Aerial Tram, despite friendly guides who were more than willing to help, there were more difficulties to be faced. At the park entrance, with Arias lifted back into her chair from the bus, she immediately had to leave her chair again to board a minibus to the main site.

We arrived at the tram, and she was back in the chair to get up to the entrance via ramps. Then, because there were no wheelchair spaces in the aerial gondolas, she had to be helped out of her chair once more to take a regular seat.

Despite the tranquil surroundings and the affability of the staff, Arias said she felt awkward and unable to relax."People feel safe in their wheelchairs, not out of them," she said. "My chair is my [set of] legs. I don't want to leave it somewhere."

Back on the ground, the specially constructed forest path allowed her to use her chair to enjoy the forest on her own - much to her satisfaction

It is facilities such as these, Arias said, that she would like to see throughout the country - facilities that enable people with disabilities to move around and enjoy themselves, in their wheelchairs, the same as people who can walk on their own two legs.

Although she appreciates people's help, she would rather be able to do things on her own, she explained. For her, the fight is about granting people with disabilities independence.

"When the government changes many things, when it won't permit a building to be built without ramps, then everyone will be incorporated into society," she said.

December 15, 2003 in accessability, advocacy, people, politics, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0)

To Brazil, Orville and Wilbur Were Fly-by-Nights

December marks the centennial of the first flight, but don't expect a celebration here, or anywhere else in Brazil, for that matter.

As Brazilians see it, Orville and Wilbur Wright are not heroes or pioneers, but rather villains and frauds who stole credit for the invention of the airplane from the man after whom this quiet provincial town of 46,000 is named, Alberto Santos- Dumont, a millionaire coffee grower's son and renowned bon vivant who became perhaps the most famous aviator of his day.

...

He committed suicide at the beach resort of Guaruja on July 23, 1932. Though he had been in and out of sanatoriums and suffered from multiple sclerosis, Brazilians are taught that he hanged himself because he was heartbroken at seeing his invention used in a civil war that was then raging here.

His lionization has intensified since 1973, the centennial of his birth. Brazil was ruled by a military dictatorship then, and the generals used him to heighten nationalist sentiment and garner popular support for their drives to manufacture airplanes and launch satellites, both of which have come to fruition.

Fly here. (registration required)

December 12, 2003 in people, technology | Permalink | Comments (1)

Talk show host shares his bout with MS in new book.

"One of the things that I have been so afraid to talk about with people is that … I'm one of these people that are in this five percent category of MS. I have extreme neuralgia which is nerve pain." He pauses again. "Though I try not to think about it I'm in pain 24 hours a day, everyday. The level of that pain goes up and down."

More from our favorite pot smoker here.

Check out the book here.

December 8, 2003 in entertainment, people, pot | Permalink | Comments (0)

Allan Appel: People with disabilities always walk alone

Allan Appel writes a biweekly column about disabilities. He has MS.

For a patient, the struggle to live with a debilitating illness is solitary.
It lies deep under our own skin, regardless of the number of people trying to lend their support.

READ THIS!

More articles by Appel

December 1, 2003 in advocacy, bummer, people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dean Singleton

William Dean Singleton is the owner of the nation's seventh-largest newspaper company, MediaNews Group owner of our local rag the Fairbanks Daily News Miner:

The favorite guess as to the genesis of Singleton's late-blooming crush on editorial is that he's doing some legacy tweaking. He's got multiple sclerosis, he's in peak midlife crisis years; clearly, the rationale goes, he wants the epitaph to say something other than "skinflint."

Singleton pooh-poohs the legacy theory. But the MS is real and on his mind. "It's there. It's debilitating. It's getting worse," he says. "I will not live a long life. So maybe it does cause me to be in more of a hurry than I have been to do what I'm gonna do."

Read it here.

Visit the MediaNews Group here.

December 1, 2003 in alaska, people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Comedy Central to Air Pryor Special

"It's not a B.S. didn't-he-USED-to-be-great tribute. It's a funny (expletive) show. I may have MS, but I ain't dead yet, (expletive)," Pryor said in a statement Tuesday.

$#%$# it here.

November 25, 2003 in entertainment, humor, people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Beluga whales are chock full of protein and vitamins

I know of one Yupik Eskimo with MS and she went through hell getting diagnosed 'cause "Eskimos don't get MS". I wonder, as traditional diets high in vitamin D are replaced by western diets if we will begin to see more MS among our Northern Native people.

"To me, it gets me more healthy," said Allen Atchak Sr., a whaling captain from Stebbins who feeds his family of seven children lots of beluga meat and muktuk. "I don't ever get sick. I don't ever get bad colds. I think it's medicine."

I've eaten whale and seal and it doesn't tast like chicken!
Taste it here.

November 24, 2003 in alaska, animals, people, we don't care how they do it outside! | Permalink | Comments (0)

Forget crafts and sewing: Girl Scouts in Alaska trap and skin beavers

Let other Girl Scouts make bird feeders out of Clorox bottles and glue together little birch-bark canoes - Troop 34 in Alaska is learning to trap and skin beavers.

We do things differently in Fairbanks. Skin 'em here.

Maybe the girls could send Richard Pryor a hat.

November 24, 2003 in alaska, people, we don't care how they do it outside! | Permalink | Comments (0)

Author speaks of 'MS scandal'

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has spoken of the pain of losing her mother to multiple sclerosis (MS) and her anger at what she sees is a lack of care for sufferers in Scotland.

Read more from the BBC here and here.

November 24, 2003 in entertainment, people, politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hollywood Composer Michael Kamen Dies at Age 55

Oscar-nominated composer, conductor and arranger Michael Kamen, one of Hollywood's most sought-after musicians, died at age 55 on Tuesday after suffering from multiple sclerosis for several years, members of his family said.

Read it here.

November 24, 2003 in entertainment, people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guitarist with MS releases debut CD

Many musicians dream of recording their own CDs, but only the most impassioned make the sacrifices necessary to achieve their ambitions. Then there are times when mere sacrifice isn't enough, when it seems life is setting up obstacles in every direction.

Read it here.

Visit his website here, buy a CD.

November 6, 2003 in environment, people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Multiple Sclerosis Sucks

This is the website that I wish I had written, read it here at multiplesclerosissucks.com.

"I think it is important that MS sufferers and their caregivers maintain a sense of humor. I've read that humor can improve health, and I'm pretty sure that it improves the quality of life. Most of the MS literature that I've read has been sensitive, sensible, serious, and scary, and therefore runs the risk of being turgid, tedious, and trite. If you have MS and you're not ready for humor yet - many MS patients will take years to reach that point and some will never get there - then read no further. If you don't have MS and are looking for humor only, I should warn you that MS is a serious subject so if you are squeamish, then likewise, now is a good time to bail out."

"I've received lots of emails telling me second-hand stories about the frustrating empathy, or lack thereof, that MS engenders in people who really should know better. I'm ashamed to say that most of these people lacking in empathy are the male spouses, lovers, or bosses of female MS sufferers. Rather than say "some people are just jerks", which is true but not a productive thing to say, I'd like to propose the MS Perspective Kit for people who lack the ability to see things from the right perspective."

Here's a good place to start.

November 2, 2003 in humor, people | Permalink | Comments (2)

Clay Walker, Country Musician

Country musician Clay Walker, who was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in 1996, formed the Band Against MS Foundation to raise money for MS research and programs, as well as raise awareness about the disease.

A Few Questions
"It doesn’t seem fair to me
Some get the chance to chase their dreams
And some don't.
But what do I know?

I wasn’t there the day you filled up the oceans.
I didn’t get to see you hang the stars in the sky,
So I don't mean to second-guess you
Or criticize what I don’t understand.
These are just a few questions I have."
© 2003 Noble Vision Music, Group, Inc. (ASCAP)/Green Dogg Music, Inc. (BMI) All rights reserved.

November 2, 2003 in entertainment, people, quotes | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sick of being sick with MS

"I had a yearlong pity party and got tired of sitting around," Strail said.

Read it here.

November 2, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

MS doesn't hinder political goals

"You don't get a diagnosis like that without it causing you to step back and evaluate where you are, where you're going and were you want to go," McAlister said.

Leaving the banking world gave McAlister the opportunity to tackle things he always wanted to do. One goal was to be elected the mayor of Cary. On Nov. 4 voters will decide whether he or town council member Julie Robison will get the job."

Run Ernie run!

Read the rest
here.

See if Ernie won here.

November 2, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Georgetown mayor quits, citing her health

"The ultimate reason I resigned is my health," she said. "What I do in 20 years depends in a lot of ways on how I take care of myself now. I really had no choice. I did what's best for me and my family."

Read the rest here.

November 2, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (4)

Entertainers, MS and sex jokes

Teri Garr

"Then the doctor asks me about sexual functions," Garr said. "I said I don't know. I haven't been invited to one lately."

Read the rest here.

Jonathan Katz

"My first neurologist had a very holistic approach to the illness. No more red meat, no more salt, no more alcohol. I said, 'What about sex?' He said, 'I'm seeing someone.'""

Read it here.

November 1, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Slowest Marathoner Always Finishes Race

"Like other athletes preparing for the New York City Marathon, Zoe Koplowitz knows the usual tips: Dress for the weather, pace yourself, start out slow.

But slow for Koplowitz, who takes to the 26.2-mile course every year with two fuschia crutches that match her eye shadow, can mean a race that stretches well into the next day.

"Last year was a little better than usual," said Koplowitz, 55. "I knocked it off in 28 hours."

Like the 30,000 or so runners attempting the marathon this Sunday, Koplowitz goes as fast as she can. She was diagnosed 30 years ago with multiple sclerosis, the degenerative disease of the nervous system."

Read the rest here.

November 1, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Coming out of the closet

"Don't tell anyone my dirty secret but I have Multiple Sclerosis. Don't get crazy over the wording of that last statement, it's a bit of a joke. I live with a disease not well understood by the general population or by the medical community."

Blog

October 23, 2003 in people, weblogs | Permalink | Comments (1)

Lonely? Hang out here...

"Sheila, of Carluke, Lanarkshire, said: "I never went on the internet looking for love. I'm the luckiest woman in the world and have been given a second chance at happiness."

The couple, who were both diagnosed with MS four years ago, will wed in the ruins of old St Kentigern's Church, Lanark, where William Wallace is said to have married Marion Braidfute in 1296."

Boy the same church as Wallace and Braidfute...

Read the rest of the story here.

October 23, 2003 in people, technology, wacky? | Permalink | Comments (0)

Harry Potter author auctions film roles for MS

"You wouldn't be the first person to read a Harry Potter book and immediately dream of enrolling at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, unless you engage in a rather extensive drug regimen, the wonders of magic, blast-ended skrewts and whomping willows remain the stuff of fantasy. JK Rowling is offereing the next best thing though, auctioning off a pair of walk-on parts in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

Grab your checkbook and head to Scotland for that dream movie role.
Read it here.

October 23, 2003 in entertainment, events, organizations, people | Permalink | Comments (0)

From an interview with author Paul Theroux on traveling by road

"Flying from one capital city to another is not travel to me. Travel, especially in Africa, must be overland and must involve the crossing of borders — negotiating on land, usually on foot, the national frontier. That experience teaches a great deal about the state of the country. Of course, it’s sometimes dangerous and always time-consuming.

Anyone who has traveled in Africa and not crossed a national frontier has truly missed the necessary misery and splendor of the journey. Crossing an African frontier alone suggests why any sort of development is so difficult. I do not recommend this to the faint of heart — even traveling by road from South Africa to Mozambique is no picnic; but from Ethiopia to Kenya, Kenya to Uganda, Tanzania to Malawi, and Malawi into Mozambique (customs post under a mango tree on the Shire River) you learn a great deal."

Read it all here.

October 22, 2003 in africa, people, quotes, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0)

The AgrAbility Project

I've always had a dream of having a small farm. Here is an interesting organization created to assist people with disabilities employed in agriculture.
Visit the website here.
Read the AgrAbility Quarterly special issue on MS here.

October 14, 2003 in organizations, people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gail Kerr - Newspaper Columnist

Gail is a newspaper columnist for The Tennessean. She has MS and occasionally writes about it.
Read her regular column here.
Read about her MS experience here.

October 8, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kamen too busy to let illness slow him down

"This is a bit like coming out of the closet," Kamen says. "I think it's probably the best thing I can do is to just be honest about it and just say, 'Yeah, I've got this, but you've heard a lot of my work and I haven't seemingly written anything bad."
Michael Kamen wrote and directed the opening music for the 2002 Winter Olympics, he served as the musical director for the Queen's Golden Jubilee at Buckingham Palace and he scored Kevin Costner’s film, Open Range.
Read more here.

October 8, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

From "The White Album" by Joan Didion

"I had, at this time, a sharp apprehension not of what it was like to be old but of what it was like to open the door to the stranger and find that the stranger did indeed have the knife. In a few lines of dialogue in a neurologist's office in Beverly Hills, the improbable had become the probable, the norm: things which happened only to other people could in fact happen to me. I could be struck by lightning, could dare to eat a peach and be poisoned by the cyanide in the stone."

Read more here

October 6, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pregnancy Surprise: Baby Born In Family's Toilet

"I noticed in the toilet, there was something in there," he said. "I said, 'Oh my God! There's a baby in there! I can't believe it!"

And you wonder why it took so long for them to figure out you had MS....
Read it here

But wait, there's more....

A sad ending to the story:
Unexpected Baby Born In Family's Toilet Dies

October 6, 2003 in people, wacky? | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Apostle Paul?

Here's one for you. Was Paul's 'thorn' actually MS?
Read it here.

October 2, 2003 in people, wacky? | Permalink | Comments (0)

Teri Garr Discusses Her MS for the First Time

Transcript from interview with Larry King.

Read it here.

September 23, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kelly Sutton - NASCAR Driver

"With racing in her blood and the checkered flag in view, Kelly is the picture of inspiration for fans across the country. Kelly, a third generation driver, travels the racing circuit with one goal in mind — to make the wheels spin.

But she measures her racing success not only by where she places in the race, but also by how her story affects others. Her story is special: Kelly is also the first person known to race in any NASCAR series with a confirmed diagnosis of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) — a chronic, though treatable, neurological disease."

Visit her website here.

September 22, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Weakened by multiple sclerosis, student gets his degree

When Fernando Chaves was handed his diploma Tuesday, his reaction was understated: A simple smile.
Read the Miami Herald article.

September 22, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ann Romney tackles multiple sclerosis head-on

Ann Romney, wife of Massachusetts Governer Mitt Romney.
Read the Boston Globe article

September 22, 2003 in people | Permalink | Comments (2)