By the Seat of My Pants

"I have often wondered if my disease was always there, lying dormant in the shadows, all those accidents explained away by my awkwardness, until it finally reared its ugly head in my twenties, when a lot of people are diagnosed with MS right in the prime of your life . I was having the time of my life, living large and working hard It was the eighties all about disco and the Urban Cowboy and I was in Houston Texas and at that time it was as good as it gets The cowboy oil field guys were making "boo coo" money and tipped $100 bills like twenties It was a pervasive time, cocaine and pot was all over the place thanks to our Mexican neighbors Houston was flooded with the best and the rich Mexican business men that brought it over spent so much money it made the oil field millionaires look poor I was working two jobs one at FMC Machinery and one at the Switch-lite bar. One gave me benefits and one gave me cash money. Life was good, I met my future husband was planning my wedding and I was finally growing up and getting it right I quit the bar, the drugs and the "life" and got down to business with a great job and a bright future. Well that is not how it worked out. I was diagnosed back in 1982, which was like the dark ages of the disease. There were no MRI's, no drug therapies, and no real tools with which to deal with the disease. You were diagnosed and then adiosed No help, no support, no hope, so I was told. But I am a New Yorker and we don't give up. I was raised to be tough and press on, so that is what I did. I had the luck to be in the Houston Medical Center and that was where a study was being conducted on MS, I found a neurologist that cared and went to great lengths to get me information, I networked with anyone that had any ties to the research that was going on and get me answers. I had the audacity to walk into Baylor college of Medicine and demand to talk to the doctor in charge of the research, I was fighting for my life as I saw it and this doctor was at the very least going to see me which he did . He gave me hope and allot of information. Finally I could participate in this disease and not just sit back and let it take me over. "So I have to be grateful, I really do. For every hardship I have suffered, I can recount a blessing, as well. Life is all about your perspective. It's all in how you look at things."