May 26, 2023 Columns by John Connor I keep running into trouble even though I’m in a wheelchair Ah yes, I’m starting this week’s column with a headline that’s a conundrum (that is, if the ol’ editor lets me keep it). That’s because I’m starting with a slang word. I’ve checked, and it seems that the main…
May 19, 2023 Columns by John Connor Global warming and the fine art of ambulance chasing Who’d have thought of the following shenanigans? It only took four days of constant badgering to fix. Last summer brought exceptional (actually, likely to be semi-regular from now on) hot weather in the U.K., with parts of England…
May 12, 2023 Columns by John Connor Reflections from the front line: Home for 3 weeks and still sorting papers So I’m back home. Four months’ worth of bureaucracy lay in front of me. In truth, quite a wodge had grown before I went into the hospital. Hey, I hadn’t been well in the months leading up to…
May 5, 2023 Columns by John Connor Reflections from the front line: My recovery from muscle deconditioning I’m worried that my tales of recovery may have gotten a tad boring, so let me liven things up with the weirdest thing I now have to live with. The head of my “thing” has been sliced half an…
April 28, 2023 Columns by John Connor Reflections from the front line: Things are looking up, eventually Ceilings. Oh yeah, I’ve become quite the expert on ceilings. If you spend much of your life prostrate, it’s hard not to. The very first column I wrote for Multiple Sclerosis News Today opened with this very…
April 21, 2023 Columns by John Connor Reflections from the front line: Awakening to the new dawn COVID-19 had finally left me. Its only trace was a pair of slimy hands. For a month, I requested a towel in bed to wipe them dry. My wife, Jane, told me my hands were fine; my…
April 7, 2023 Columns by John Connor Reflections from the front line: The waiting game It transpired that I’d gone and fallen at the worst possible time, landing myself in the midst of a major news story. I’d been aware that what had toppled me was most probably my persistent urinary tract infections…
March 31, 2023 Columns by John Connor Reflections from the front line: Stand up, gratefully fall down again If you haven’t read last week’s column (ah, another discerning nonreader), all you need to know is that I’m in a pain sandwich very much of my own making. And this was an improvement! I’d rather be turned…
March 24, 2023 Columns by John Connor Reflections from the front line: I can’t even fall properly this time! Things had been more than dodgy for the past three days. My right shoulder had gone into complete spasm, and even diazepam couldn’t relax it. I’d also upped my antibiotics as instructed. Nada. As ever, I shouldered on…
March 17, 2023 Columns by John Connor Reflections from the front line: Dying, an atheist (a)muses If you noticed my sudden disappearance, it wasn’t because I was sacked. Surprising, I know. Just “MS MIA” — missing in action with multiple sclerosis. While raving in the hospital, I was suddenly moved to my own private…
November 25, 2022 Columns by John Connor The World Cup of Football — or Is It Soccer? — Offers an Escape From MS In the five years I’ve been tapping away at this multiple sclerosis (MS) column for MS News Today, I’ve so far written during one FIFA World Cup. My oft used trope is that “it’s football, not…
November 18, 2022 Columns by John Connor The Catch-22 of Dealing With Medical Bureaucracy First off, let me apologize for my penchant for using hip literary references. Not everyone is aware of Joseph Heller’s seminal satirical novel published in 1961, which spawned the book’s title of “Catch-22” as a quick-fire phrase to…
November 11, 2022 Columns by John Connor Someone in My Family Has Medical Problems, and It Ain’t Me You get used to … Hold on there, matey boy. Be honest and write “I.” This column has a reputation for brutal honesty (I’m sure someone has referred to it that way over the past five years), so don’t…
November 4, 2022 Columns by John Connor I’m Taking This Medication Side Effect With a Grain of Salt The call from my urologist’s office came far later than I was expecting, in regards to my long-term chronic urinary tract infection (UTI). The call came in on my home phone, but luckily, someone else was around to…
October 28, 2022 Columns by John Connor Do You Want the Good News or the Bad News? Ah, one of the classic setups for a Christmas cracker joke. Others include, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” and “How many ____ does it take to change a lightbulb?” While these gags are popular in Britain, I’m…
October 21, 2022 Columns by John Connor A Childish Adult With MS Looks Back on His Life and Has Questions “You married a husband and ended up with a child,” quipped I. It was first thing Sunday morning, and I was addressing my wife of 30 years, Jane. She stood with blue, latex, hypoallergenic gloves on her hands,…
October 14, 2022 Columns by John Connor As Ever, I Prevaricate Before Taking On My Focus: Long COVID-19 Ah, after living the majority of the last three years of my life indoors, I do tend to spark conversation with my carers. But if I keep quiet, they’re more than happy to do so, too, as they repetitively…
October 7, 2022 Columns by John Connor No Surprise Here: Reflections and Ruminations on Living With MS There are moments in life that have surprising effects on us. I’ve had two. The first was when I was about 9, and my mother informed me that my headmaster had been told I’d disappeared after school. Fair enough…
September 30, 2022 Columns by John Connor How Did I End Up in a ’60s Cold War Spy Thriller? The constant light in my cell burned through my eyelids all night. Every night for days now. Prostrate on my back, I couldn’t even turn over to get away from it. Why me? I knew nothing. Wasn’t part of…
September 23, 2022 Columns by John Connor The Smog of Tax Returns: An MS Fairy Tale Once upon a time, children, there was a very grumpy bear who kept a low-level, incessant growl going all day. And often, well into the night, too. If his family were lucky, this would only last about a week,…
November 30, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Is multiple sclerosis everywhere, or am I just more aware of it now?