Well... I think I said earlier that I needed to write something here... and here it is one year later...

it's not like I haven't talked about it though... I did a podcast episode last year that talked about it. I have just never written about it.

So... here it is. One year later, I can look back and try to remember what that day was like. You never want to get a phone call at work from a health care professional. I had been getting all kinds of MRI's, spinal taps... just to figure out why I'm getting these leg twitches/spasms...

So, the doctor that I had gone to for a second opinion made a diagnosis based on interviews, symptoms, and something that showed-up on an MRI that I had of a totally different region...

I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

I happened to be seeing my neurologist that day, so I called Carol and we both went... and we both listened to what she said...

I started a daily drug therapy... I had to get over an extreme phobia about needles. The drug is administered daily - via injection - into a fat layer under your skin. I guess the only way I could handle this was I was able to get an Autoject - a device that uses the pre-filled syringes and fires/injects at the pull of a trigger... that way i don't have to handle it all .. and deal with manually injecting myself...

So... the drug itself - Copaxone - is not a cure. There is no cure. It's just supposed to reduce the number and severity of exacerbations. It works by modifying my immune system... which you know, you gotta watch. And *NOT* cheap. Thank god for insurance - it's saving me over $2,250 a month. But, it's a drug that, since it doesn't cure, doesn't make you feel any different either. So what weighs on you mind is - "is this drug even working?"

So... there you have it. A disease without a cure. A drug that just reduces the lesions and their frequency...

Just to keep me going...

Here it is a year later, and I don't really know how I feel about this... don't know at all... I know it was "caught early" before things really went "south"...

So... you only do what you know you can do... don't let the disease "define you"... just keep on living each day... and see where the road takes you