Roughly fifteen years ago I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and I was instantly thrust into a new way of life that, I might add, I had not asked for. And then about four years ago a lesion on my neck, just to the right and below my right ear, was diagnosed as being pre-melanoma and required a surgical procedure to remove it. I so far, have been fortunate enough not to have had any more of these kinds of lesions. However now I will always have to be, especially since I have very fair skin, very careful about any skin anomaly that I, or my doctor, may find. Yep, just one more thing that I have to worry about as I get older.

     You know, it seems to me that anyone who is diagnosed with something like Multiple Sclerosis or Cancer should never again have to face a life changing health issue of the same magnitude. And now I’m two for two as I travel into my twilight years of this lifetime. And now I am more then totally convinced that the Eleventh Commandment should have been, If thou suffers from one terrible disease then thou shall not have to ever face another one in this lifetime.

     And for me, unfortunately, it doesn’t end there either. My family is just loaded with diabetics and pre-diabetics as far as the family tree can be traced. And I was aware of that when I was first diagnosed with MS so I read what I could find out about this on the internet which of course is not always the most reliable of sources but when I was looking, all those years ago, I was lucky just to be able to figure out how to get onto the internet in the first place so questioning what I was reading wasn’t exactly a concern at the time.

     At any rate, I was quite relieved when I stumbled across an article, or opinion, you decide, about people who had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis rarely ever being diagnosed with Diabetes from that point on. Which, of course, isn’t true but there is a strange ending to my story here in the present day. While everyone else in my families blood sugar soars after they eat mine does not. And this has left a couple my doctors quite perplexed, so in my case, maybe the MS Diabetic thing is true after all? Well, I can only hope so, because there is also a fair amount of Cardiac Disease in my family as well. But that’s another story, and another worry, for another day. Right now, I’m just happy that all I have is just MS!

Bill Walker