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 I just thought that if I had a purpose, it’d work…
September 8, 2023 Columns by John Connor Youāve got a Napoleon complex, you have, mate I don’t have a Napoleon complex in the sense of being small. My body still spans 6 feet, though that’s only when I’m lying down; I doubt I get anywhere near 5 feet tall while seated in my wheelchair. Saint Jane (my wife) is 5-foot-2, and I now look…
August 4, 2023 Columns by John Connor MS comorbidities make me a stranger in a strange body I was never a hypochondriac until multiple sclerosis (MS) whacked me. A catastrophic fall while playing tennis in 2007 resulted in a shoulder separation that took two operations to fix. The pain was so bad that, at the time, MS was just something else I had. To be accurate,…
June 11, 2021 Columns by John Connor A Drizzly Summer Weekend and an Antibiotic Rejection There was a time when I’d regularly strap on two pads, stride out between English showers, and attempt to bat on the subsequently dodgy surface. That was good for the fast bowlers, except they now found themselves also slipping on the sopping grass. I sympathized with them, as I was…
May 14, 2021 Columns by John Connor MS and Boxing: Being Clever With My Pants After last week’s column about my neurologist declaring that I now have secondary progressive MS, a certain ennui has seeped into me. While this isn’t surprising, it’s also surprising, because I’m on the mood-altering drug fluoxetine. OK, fluoxetine is a regular antidepressant, but “mood-altering” sounds so much cooler.
April 2, 2021 Columns by John Connor To Have a Persistent UTI or Not? That Is the Question If you read last week’s column, you’ll know I’ve just been through hell ā which is a pretty big statement for an atheist. Of course, if there is a hell, I’ll be going straight down. To save you the bother of reading it, here’s a prĆ©cis: A foot wound…
February 14, 2020 Columns by John Connor And the Biofilm Goes to … The medical profession must be sick and tired of patients diagnosing themselves via the wonders of the internet. But as a patient who’s sick and tired, you eventually have to. Medicine is full of orthodoxies that are incredibly hard to shake. When you find yourself at the edge of these…
September 6, 2019 Columns by John Connor Under Pressure There’s always something. The trouble with a mĆ©lange of complex medical issues is that one good action often can lead to a bad secondary one. It’s like a game of consequences that unfortunately not only injures your psyche, but also leaves a mark on the body. In my case, it…
July 7, 2017 Columns by John Connor MS Pipe Dreams: Dealing with Urinary Tract Infections I’ve been considering writing about the fun, fun world of catheters. As this column is morphing into some sort of diary, let’s deal with this week’s medical procedural drama. Welcome to UTI (urinary tract infection) week. Anyone who uses a catheter is prone to a higher incidence of…