CROVIRA2 WINS THE GRAND PRIZE!!!

     What troopers you are!  If you read yesterday's post, you'll be happy to know I have already received TWO emails from y'all and will post CROVIRA2'S response today...although I have to apologize to CROV about the "expletive" editing I had to do to continue to fly under the AOL radar (all changes will be found in color...you'll follow it just the same!).  I've also added the original questions above CROV's answers because I'm way too concrete to keep up with out the reference questions!

     CROVIRA2 also has a MS podcast at the addy shown in the picture...give it a whirl...I'm still trying to understand "podcast", but I'm starting to get it!

1.  How old were you, where were you, what time of year was it, and what were you wearing when you "received" the lovely diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis? (Friends of MS--twist it for when you were told about your person's MS...don't forget to tell us what you were wearing, though.)

1a. The first time I had an exacerbation it was undiagnosed.  I was sixteen at the time.  My hand co-ordination went to hell.  I had tremors and I remember looking at my hand as it shook and wondering "What the f%#k?"  (I was wearing blue jeans, a red sweatshirt and burgandy ankle boots with a wonderful shine just glowing off of them.  "Dahling, I looked simply di-vine.")

1b. The first time I had an attack, at 31, it was diagnosed as MS
right there and then.  I was exhibiting ALL of the damned symptoms. I spend a week in neuro ICU, four weeks in a ward of the hospital recovering.  Discovered how lousy the company's insurance and disability coverage was. Got back my strength, coordination and whooping cough (sorry a para-percussive virus, they'd eradicated whooping cough, so they said...)  I was wearing a "Johnny Shirt" that ties in the back and nothing else. (And who's the s$*t-head who thought up of those shirts.  I have MS and NO CORDINATION left to tie those f!^kin' things with.  Its an exercise in absolute frustration with a side of humiliation.)

2.  Who was the first person you told about your MS and what was their reaction?  (Friends of MS--whadaya think, what went through your mind when you were told?)

2. I was such a mono-maniac that my only friend was my wife (#1).  (There is enough about the problems of giftedness and infantilism to fill several psychology books and I'd read them all.)

3.  What's your greatest fear and/or secret about your MS and what HASN'T come true or manifested from your MS that you thought would happen or affect you?  (Friends of MS--take liberty with your prose  here...you can change the NAME of your MSer and spill the beans on THEIR crap!  If you change the name and call it a "seminar" in my profession, you're not breaking any confidentiality rules!)

3. I have no fear. I also have no expectations. MS just IS. Deal with it. Learn what you must and deal with it. What you DO is pick yourself up and get back to what you were doing as best you can. The rest is just whining and a waste of time.

4.  What's your worst symptom(s) or the nagging thing about your MS that just won't leave you alone?  (Friends of MS--you are given license here to use the words, "gimp", "weeble", "drunken sailor", "blind as a bat", "crazy as a mad hatter", and any other word(s) considered politically incorrect by the disabled or the MS World.)

4. I walk with a cane now. Which means I'm probably never going to dance gracefully again. (Been there, done that, ...next...)

5.  Who/What supports you/comforts you in your life and where do you go to find it/them/calm/etc.?  (Friends of MS--probably YOU'RE going to be talked about here...take a bow, and then answer the question anyway!)

5. My current wife (#2) is still my best friend (and a gifted cook :-)

6.  And last, but not least, what do you still have on your agenda to achieve/finish/reach/summit/climb/accomplish before retiring to that great, golden Club Med in the sky?  (Friends of MS--I assume YOU have goals, too...what are they?  Do any of these goals relate to your MSer?  What are you wearing right now as you read this?  Throw us gimps a bone here and humor us!!  Ad lib it up!)

6. I'm going to make a success of this MS (niche market) podcasting, by failing at it in as many ways as possible until I eventually run out of ways to fail. (I'm typing this late at night and I'm just wearing my shorts .... and a :-) And yes, its cold, but that keeps the noise down in my scleratic nervous system.

     And now haven't we ALL learned just a little something more from each other today?!?  Thanks for filling in the "gaps" for us, CROVIRA2!!