November 9, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister My multiple sclerosis has made me more suspicious As I’ve mentioned a time or two, my wife and I have three boys. Although they’re all under the age of 12, they’ve started to talk like the budding teenagers they are. As they mingle with peers more than…
November 2, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister With multiple sclerosis, the right caregiver is everything There are a lot of things that I’m afraid of. That seems to come with the territory when you have a chronic disease like multiple sclerosis (MS), or when you’re a parent. At the same time, I don’t…
October 26, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Pretending to be well so we don’t look like we’re faking being sick Halloween is five days away, and if you have kids, you’re running out of time to have your costumes ready. My wife and our three boys have everything figured out, minus some finishing touches — unless I want to…
October 19, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister With a diagnosis of MS, you learn to expect the unexpected I try not to let my life revolve around multiple sclerosis (MS), but there’s no escaping the fact that the disease affects every part of it. That’s a bit of a conundrum and often frustrates me to no…
October 12, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister How the 5 types of impostor syndrome can affect those with MS With my kids in school, me being retired, and, of course, the limitations of my multiple sclerosis (MS), I have a lot of free time on my hands. I’d like to say that I always use it productively,…
October 5, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister How do you describe your multiple sclerosis to others? Back in spring, I wrote about the fatigue that accompanies multiple sclerosis (MS) and how difficult it was to describe and for others to understand. That’s true, of course, but really, the entirety of MS is difficult…
September 28, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister With multiple sclerosis, don’t worry about asking stupid questions I ask a lot of questions. I have to, because I’ve come to realize that I don’t actually know that much. Asking questions (even to myself) is the only solution. Oddly enough, though, learning new things doesn’t completely scratch…
September 21, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Learning the hard way that with MS, no infection is routine I’ve never been one to worry too much about what my purpose in life is. It’s not that I’m incapable of being philosophical, or that I was ever too egotistical to think I needed one. I suppose…
September 7, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister How do you define defiance while living with MS? Recently, I was asked about the design on the left side of my “Chairborne” banner. A friend from my previous occupation humorously noted that in the original graphic, there’s a skull in the center where the wheelchair now…
August 31, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister With multiple sclerosis, hindsight is accurate — and often unkind “Being diagnosed later in life is like watching a TV show with a huge plot twist revealed at the end of the season and then rewatching it with this new knowledge, picking up on all the foreshadowing and…
August 24, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Living with MS can often feel like being lost in the woods Years before joining the Army crossed my mind, I was a Boy Scout. We learned all sorts of skills, earned merit badges, and, of course, spent lots of time hiking and camping. I have many fond memories of…
August 17, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Parachuting my way through this life with MS Ten minutes away from the drop zone, we stood up and began the final preparations for the jump. The aircraft flew in anything but a straight line as it turned, banked, and swiftly changed altitude. This unpredictable flying technique…
August 10, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Multiple sclerosis makes it tough to deal with the heat of the dog days I like to look up. No, I’m not referring to my disposition, although I do consider it to be an improvement over what it once was. I’m actually pretty sunny, if you happen to think of “sunny” as…
August 3, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister As my kids head back to school, I must prepare for inevitable illnesses This morning, at an unholy hour, our family awoke to the sound of alarm bells. Well, not bells, but rather the gentle yet insistent sound of one of Alexa’s alarms. Actually, we changed the name of our…
July 27, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Why it’s strangely comforting that MS doctors don’t know everything I’m not a doctor, just a patient. And depending on whom you ask, I’m not a very good one, either — unless you happen to be fond of lots of questions. I was a medic in the U.S.
July 20, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister In life with multiple sclerosis, self-care is anything but selfish About three years before my multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis and subsequent retirement, I found myself in Iraq preparing for a mission. I was going out with a different team from another branch of the U.S. military, and the…
July 13, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Multiple sclerosis has made my once-dominant hand less so I am not left-handed! No, I’m not channeling Westley or Inigo from “The Princess Bride,” just clarifying a common — and fair — assumption. While I now do nearly everything left-handed, including eating, drinking, and even typing…
July 5, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister With a disabling condition, seeking help is part of independence I must look like I need help all the time. I don’t own a shirt or any other article of clothing that says so, and I don’t think I have a helpless look on my face, either. I…
June 29, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Living with MS is not just ‘all or nothing,’ but I kind of wish it were A few — OK, many — years ago, I played the lead in a production of “Oklahoma!” Don’t get excited; it wasn’t on Broadway or anything like that. It was a high school production, and I suspect I…
June 22, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister The right support is essential when you have multiple sclerosis I didn’t seek support immediately after my diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). To be fair, MS was just an annoyance to me at the beginning. It was simply a set of symptoms, and I was initially…
April 18, 2024 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Learning how to write a ‘SOAP’ note feels different after an MS diagnosis
April 15, 2024 Columns by Leigh Anne Nelson What does ‘delicate balance’ mean in my life with multiple sclerosis?