Lou Gehrig tears up as he delivers his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939. (Murray Becker/AP Photo)
MS is not ALS, but aggressive forms of MS like the kind I had do indeed cripple and kill. I've cried for myself exactly once specifically because of MS. That time was before I knew just how bad things would get for me. It was driving home alone the day of my diagnosis in 2007, after the doctor had said that MS was incurable, but manageable with a lifetime of MS drug injections.
Sure, there were plenty more tears in the years that followed as my disease got worse and worse despite the drugs. But most of my sorrow was due to losses only partly related to the disease. Whatever happened, the hackneyed old "at least you've got your health" didn't apply to me. It felt like I'd lost everything. But once I got past the self pity and looked up, there were friends all around. And a lifetime of work and lucky breaks had accumulated enough money to buy a small condo and pay for the HSCT procedure that stopped my MS. In a warped sense, I was blessed.
My most recent tears were of joy when Dr. Burt accepted me for HSCT treatment. I remembered those as I recently filled out the medical review forms for my upcoming post-treatment evaluation in Chicago. It's a reminder of how much better I already am, but also how much work I have yet to do in rehab and recovery. It's nine flights of stairs up to my condo, and yesterday I took them instead of the elevator. I will make that climb every day and time myself until I'm sprinting, the luckiest man on Earth.
Though HSCT is proving itself effective for stopping MS, it unfortunately hasn't done the same for ALS, at least not yet. ALS research continues. As I pray that HSCT becomes more widely available for MS patients who need it, I'll also pray that scientists will find a procedure that works for ALS. Maybe it will be a different form of HSCST, or something else entirely.
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