March 8, 2019 Columns by John Connor Minority Report In the earlier days of my MS, I could still walk a bit. It was not enough to risk the maze of an airport, so I traveled sensibly in a wheelchair and preregistered as a disabled passenger. My…
March 1, 2019 Columns by John Connor Hair We Go Again I can’t quite remember when I got hooked on the writings of Jack London, but I don’t think I’ve ever quite shaken off his Nietzschean-inspired “Superman” ethos. It comes in handy for surviving in the wilds of…
February 22, 2019 Columns by John Connor Relapse, Relapse, Relapse Relapses can be sneaky. They can scythe you down. I’ve been dealing with multiple sclerosis (MS) since 2006 and I only consciously remember two relapses. The first relapse was two years after I had been diagnosed with sclerosis.
February 15, 2019 Columns by John Connor Stuck in Delivery Limbo Land Take a minute … and relax. It’s been a fraught few weeks of numerous solo hospital visits, as my wife was first dealing with a dying father and then helping to organize his funeral, estate, and her…
February 8, 2019 Columns by John Connor Wrap Up Warm: It’s Colder than Mars! OK, I’ve used a typical tabloid headline to draw you into a column about dealing with lymphedema. Well, the topic is not exactly sexy! Though my calves are now extremely toasty due to being effectively embalmed. Lymphedema…
February 1, 2019 Columns by John Connor The Hospital Trilogy If MS was just about MS, it wouldn’t be easy, but it would be a lot easier. It’s different for all of us. For me, MS means ambulation is practically impossible. I could manage a few yards, but the…
January 25, 2019 Columns by John Connor A Voyage Round My Father-in-law This is going to be a hard column to write, and quite possibly it breaks all the rules of column writing by being a tough one to read! I’ve always found humor handy when facing adversity. On the…
January 18, 2019 Columns by John Connor Do What You Can One of the hardest things I’ve had to accept with MS is the necessity of asking for help. Pride and self-reliance dissipate remarkably quickly when you find yourself splayed on the floor and you no longer have the…
January 11, 2019 Columns by John Connor It’s Back-to-School Time Well, it feels like it, at least. I just had the whole of the Christmas-New Year’s period off because of how the dates fell. If you only have to be physically at a work venue one day a…
January 4, 2019 Columns by John Connor What a Relief! New year, new beginnings — not a chance. Theresa May still has Brexit as her waking and sleeping nightmare, and I’m still battling urinary tract infections (UTIs). Over the last few years, I’ve probably written about this…
December 21, 2018 Columns by John Connor A Winter’s Tale If you think Christmas is just too stressful, relax — at least you’re not Santa! He’s had to work every single Christmas Day for the last 1,600 years. He was beginning to wonder if it had really…
December 14, 2018 Columns by John Connor Betwixt and Between Usually, I have an idea of what I’m going to write. Today, all I feel is a bit meeeeugh … Which is more a sound of ennui than a recognizable word. In these days of multimedia, I suppose I…
December 7, 2018 Columns by John Connor The Right Hand of Lightness There’s a joy in going on a long journey in which I get the luxury of sleeping through the whole thing. It’s practically magical. Or scientifically, like teleportation. I was there and now I’m here without any effort!…
November 30, 2018 Columns by John Connor In Real Time So, “it” started on Monday. I have no idea what I’m dealing with. Is it a urinary tract infection, a relapse, a bird, or a plane? The superhero metaphor is warranted because, just like in “Avengers: Infinity…
November 16, 2018 Columns by John Connor And the Good News Is … Getting started on any career is fraught with difficulty, and the trail that got me to my base camp was truly meandering. It was nearly as convoluted as that sentence! At 23, without meaning to, I found myself…
November 9, 2018 Columns by John Connor Medical Marijuana in the UK: So Near and Yet So Far As I’m writing this, my right arm is tight and my right hand is cramped up. I was out working last night and night work always shatters me the next morning when I awaken with exacerbated MS symptoms.
November 2, 2018 Columns by John Connor How I Managed to Get a Scary Halloween Haircut “You’ve had a haircut — very smart!” was the greeting at work. Yes, but it was in no way a simple thing. The logistics involved were really that: It took the small army of my family to complete…
October 26, 2018 Columns by John Connor Every Day Is Like a Box of Chocolates Each morning, I’m confronted by an adaptation of the conundrum faced by Forest Gump’s mother: “Life [is] like a box of chocolates: You never know what you’re gonna get.” If I can’t get myself out of bed,…
October 19, 2018 Columns by John Connor Taking a Flu Day Going to bed late and sleeping is reportedly a marker of intelligence. In that case, I am definitely something of a genius. So, it’s always a shock when I have to get up in the morning. I’ve…
October 12, 2018 Columns by John Connor A Black Mark for the Black Cab Sorry, this story is definitely parochial and about being disabled, rather than narrowly focused on having MS. It also turns out to be somewhat celebratory — albeit starting from a criticism. Before I get to that, a bit…
November 30, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Is multiple sclerosis everywhere, or am I just more aware of it now?
