Here We Go

I am starting this page at a suggestion of a friend. I have multiple sclerosis, and I was diagnosed while right in the middle of earning a Ph.D. in neurobiology (ironic!) These are both difficult life events but managing them at the same time.... Well, compare it to giving birth while competing in a triathlon!

Just yesterday my friend shared with me a recent fortune cookie message: "You will soon witness a miracle." and said he had to think it applied to me. I would like to think it might, but who knows? Miracles come in so many shapes and sizes and so many go unrecognized. There is a Chinese Proverb: "The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water; but to walk on the earth."

Like so many people, I am a Type A personality and a list maker. A "successful" day means I've completed that list (to perfection). I began graduate school with the goal that someday I would find the cure for schizophrenia (a promise I once made to a friend and former co-worker who suffered from this disease.) I wanted to do something amazing with my life; but now I finally get it. Just to walk on this earth, live our lives, and overcome the obstacles that will, without fail, get in our way - THAT is the miracle. (By the way, some days are a lot more miraculous than others!)

This site is a place where I will be able to journal (and sometimes vent!) about life. Quite a bit will probably focus on the MS. I remember while going through that long, tedious process of being diagnosed a few years ago - it was scary. I searched the internet not just for scientific literature but for those with the personal experience. I think it really helps to be validated by other patients just like yourself; but I will also be throwing in new research and therapies I might hear about. I would like to mention here for anyone else that may read my blogs, that my area of research is developmental neurobiology. I am not a specialist in degenerative disorders nor am I a neurologist (MD)!!!

I am very lucky to have a supportive family and such caring friends. As my MS has progressed I have seen how caring people really can be. Before, like everyone, I just hurried through life barely noticing the strangers that walked past me. Now I am "fortunate" enough to sometimes need the help of these strangers, and it amazes me how many are willing to stop and offer this help.

No matter what happens to my body because of multiple sclerosis - the pain, the physical limitations, I know that it will be softened by these acts of strangers and the loving gestures of friends. That's what I call a miracle.