Biography

Hi folks.  MS runs in my family. but I never thought MS would happen to me.  My mom’s brother was an Irish catholic priest and he had MS back in the late 1960’s before there were effective medicines. He came to visit my mom in NYC in the early 1970’s and a NY doctor put him on high doses of vitamin D which helped him a lot. He went back to Ireland and the Irish doctors laughed and took him off the vitamin D. He died in his 40’s but I don’t know the exact cause. It’s a bit of a mystery to me. He used to correspond with my mom by mailing each other audio cassette tapes where they would record their thoughts. I listened to one cassette tape from my uncle where he told my mom about going to Belfast to get surgery and it seemed like it was something related to his MS. I have no clue what surgery there is for MS so maybe it was for something else. Unfortunately, my mom couldn’t remember the details and she is not here anymore. I have two male cousins with MS, all on my mom’s side of the family.  For some odd reason, MS seems to only hit the males in the family.  I was on Tecfidera for 8 years until an MRI last year showed new scars in my brain and spine.  Now I’m on Ocrevus. So far so good.  I kept working for 7 years after my diagnosis, mostly because I’m stubborn.  I took a leave of absence from my job in 2020 and never went back.  I recently qualified for SSDI.  These days I work around the house, help my wife take care of our kids and I play with our two cats.