disabled

Seeing Red

02/08/2011 - 01:43

I'm generally a guy who is very slow to anger. I'm relatively even-tempered, and always try to remind myself that triumph and disaster, as Rudyard Kipling said, are both impostors. The heights of triumph and the valleys of disaster are usually short-lived, and to allow either to trick you into believing that yours is a life that will always be lived in splendor or despair is to have a deluded grasp on reality. I once won over $14,000 in the Florida lottery, and I've seen many of my chosen horses fall short by a nose, both literally and metaphorically. It isn't that I haven't allowed myself to experience the sweetness of conquest, or the bitterness of downfall, but I've long tried to keep things in perspective.

For Every 100 People That Walk by Me When I'm in iBot Balance Mode…

02/02/2011 - 12:37

Mitch Sturgeon

… I bet 30 of them think something like, “Wow, that is strange, but I’m going to carry on as if it’s nothing interesting at all. Must…not…reveal…amazement.” And they’ll say this to themselves for a wide variety of reasons: too cool, too shy, too polite, fugitive from justice.

When I’m zipping around in balance mode in my iBot, it’s quite a site. I have to believe that more is going through people’s heads than they let on. This post is my best guess as to what 100 average people are actually thinking when they walk by me.

If you’d like to see me in action, check out this video.

1/27/11 Liberation Surgery round 2

01/28/2011 - 01:54

Mike House

Fearing my veins had closed back on me, it was again time to begrudgingly go see Dr. Arata at Pacific Interventional, and packed up and drove the 4 hours to Orange County. We arrived at the new digs they now recommend for CCSVI patients, the Ayers Hotel on Bristol St. at the junction of the 55 and 73 freeways, just 10 minutes from the office. It’s an awfully nice hotel for the price, kind of a stately Victorian look and feel, and they had a little goody pack in the room for us specially prepared from the Pacific Interventional staff. A lot of people travel a long way for this surgery, and I think this touch would help settle a lot of nerves.

Multiple Sclerosis and the TSA: An Open Letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security

01/07/2011 - 14:43

Trevis Gleason

Madam Secretary Napolitano,

I’m quite upset… and you should know about it (before someone far more litigious than myself tells you)!

I guess I should preface the forthcoming tirade with the fact that, as I am a proud former member of the US Coast Guard, I know very well the difficulties faced by the line employees of the Transportation Security Administration section of your Homeland Security department. I do not blame them.

I live with multiple sclerosis (MS), a degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Current research points to the body’s immune system as a possible culprit of the disease. As a result, heavy doses of corticosteroids are often employed to battle MS.

Our Night Out on the Town

01/02/2011 - 10:39

Mitch Sturgeon

“If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect.”
- Ted Turner

I’m predisposed to enjoy solitary pursuits like reading a good book, sitting by the fire, or watching quality TV. But once in a while I get the urge to abandon my safe haven and venture into the disabled-unfriendly world beyond, usually at my wife’s prodding. Wednesday was one of those days.