Columns

On Being Truly Thankful

Well, friends, we are coming to the end of 2020. Thanksgiving is next week, and believe it or not, Christmas is just around the corner. And while I canā€™t say Iā€™m grateful for all the challenges this very weird and wacky year has presented me with, I remain so for…

To Be Forewarned Is to Be Forearmed

My travails with MS invariably deal with what it does to me. This week, dear reader, it’s what I did to my jolly old self! I’ve got a daily light exercise routine designed for me by an occupational therapist (OT) and a physiotherapist. Why two professionals? Well, the…

Travel During COVID-19: Should We Stay or Should We Go?

The temperature’s dropping. The wind is whipping. It’s time for my wife, Laura, and me to head south, leaving cold, uncomfortable Maryland for the welcoming warmth of southwest Florida. Or is it? Though I once swore I’d never become a snowbird, a few years ago, we spent a week on…

Of Mice and Men (and MS Research)

The other day, I was watching an arts documentary instead of another repeat of a movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was about John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” of which I’m a fan. The headline for a column I’d been mulling for some time about MS mouse research…

MSIF Issues New Recommendations to Protect Against COVID-19

The Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF) has issued new recommendations about how people with MS should adjust their daily lives because of the coronavirus pandemic. The MSIF, a network of national MS societies from around the world, first issued COVID-19 recommendations last spring. But much has been learned…

Brain Fog and Changing Clocks

Annually, I’m frustrated by the changing of our clocks due to the end of daylight saving time. It seems so straightforward: Time either goes backward or forward by an hour. That’s it. It doesnā€™t seem so challenging to comprehend. Or does it?…

5 Ways to Let Go of the Stress

Well, folks, we made it to the end of a very long political season and an even longer week. I donā€™t know about you, but I donā€™t feel a bit relieved. In fact, I have tension and stress trapped in every muscle and joint of my body. And thatā€™s not…

45 Minutes in the Life of John Peter Connor

I have two regular carers at the moment. The first to arrive greets me with her usual efficacious, “Good morning, John!” She’s loud enough to wake the whole street. Luckily, my neighbors should be up anyway, as my carers are booked for 11 a.m. each weekday. I have mentioned in…

The Long and Winding Road to My Urologist’s Door

Last week’s column, “The Loneliness of the Long-distance UTI Patient,” dealt with my dive into the Eastern (bloc) world of bacteriophages. It would be a fun exercise (and boy, do I need some exercise) to dive into the history of the discovery of bacteriophages and antibiotics. Both fight…

aHSCT Gets a Boost in US With NMSS Recommendations

Is the United States a step closer to approving a form of stem cell transplantation as a treatment for multiple sclerosis? I believe it may be. That’s because the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) has slightly changed its view of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, or aHSCT. aHSCT involves…

Seeking Permission to Escape

I have been living in the land of Netflix. It went from a place I would visit from time to time to a home away from home. In between life’s moments, I find myself teleported to the land of escape. I become lost amid the complexity of characters and the…

Managing Feelings of Uncertainty

It doesnā€™t take much for us to feel uncertain. It could be the result of a new symptom or doing something you’ve never before done, such as attending a telehealth appointment. Maybe the election causes you uncertainty. Perhaps current events or new…

On Theme and Variations

A few weeks back, I listened to a segment on NPRā€™s “Here & Now”Ā featuring superstar pianist Lang Lang and his latest recording project. Iā€™m still thinking about it. He decided to tackle Johann Sebastian Bachā€™s masterwork, ā€œGoldberg Variations.ā€ No mean feat, seeing as how there are 30 variations…

The Loneliness of the Long-distance UTI Patient

When did I first become aware of the word “phage”? “Star Trek,” of course! It was an episode about a disease that was destroying a race somewhere in the Delta Quadrant. (OK, possibly ā€” even I fade out in the Nerdverse. But it definitely was in the “Voyager” series.)…

Diagnosing MS During a Pandemic: UK vs. US

Editor’s note: Previously, this piece stated that Dr. Ide Smets theorized a transition to telemedicine as the standard of care could cause decreased life expectancy in the U.K. of up to 30 years. The piece has been corrected to state that such a change could result in a decreased life…

Learning to Navigate Cog Fog

The cog fog (cognitive fog) is thick and heavy. I cannot seem to extract words from the alphabet soup that fills my head. This is torturous for a self-described word nerd. And as my MS progresses, so does the fog. Slowed cognition has become one of the most…

Finding Support in an Online Community

Finding an understanding community makes such a difference to people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).Ā  Our partners, families, children, and friends do their best to listen and empathize, but at the end of the day, they can only empathize so much. Unless they have an illness…

Peace, My Heart, Peace

Despite the melatonin and Kava tea, the hot baths and weighted blanket, Iā€™m not sleeping very well these days. I havenā€™t been for months actually. In addition to the ā€œlow-burnā€ stresses that come with adulthood and the utterly average cares of the workaday world, I have felt a…

Resistance May Be Futile, but the Borg Taught Me Something

OK, you’re not all science fiction nuts, so I’ll explain: The Borg are a cybernetic race and the lead baddies in the “Star Trek” universe ā€” or, the way the latest Netflix iteration is going, the multiverse. Besides trying to take over all life forms, they also have the sneaky…