Amy’s Story: A Battle With MS
In retrospect, multiple sclerosis had probably been stalking Amy for a long time. She had suffered from chronic headaches in high school, and her seasonal allergies had been over the top. Then, in her mid-30s, the busy wife and mother of two had just finished staining the deck when a peculiar numbness and fatigue rolled […]
Amber’s Story: Ruptured Aneurysm
The only visible sign of Amber Gray’s ordeal is the long slender scar that runs along her forearm. It is the area where a surgeon carefully removed her radial artery, which was needed to bypass a damaged artery in her brain. Another scar, where Mario Zuccarello, MD, opened the skull to perform the bypass and […]
Richard’s Story: Ruptured Aneurysms
Almost three years ago, Richard “Dick” Watson, MD, found himself in an unfamiliar position for a doctor: lying on the operating table instead of standing over it. He didn’t know it at the time, but it was the beginning of a journey that would take him from intensive physical therapy to being recertified to be […]
Norma’s Story: Essential Tremor
Question: what progressive neurological condition causes a rhythmic trembling of the head, voice, legs or trunk; can be treated with medication or deep brain stimulation; has no definitive cure; and is eight times more common than Parkinson’s disease? If you’re stumped, you’re not alone. The condition just described is essential tremor. Essential tremor, which is […]
Charles Sabine’s Story: Huntington’s Disease
In 2005 the NBC war correspondent Charles Sabine made the life-altering decision to face up to his family history of Huntington’s disease and undergo genetic testing. The odds, he knew, were 50-50 that he, too, had the gene and would eventually develop the progressive neurological condition. When the neurologist gave Mr. Sabine the chilling results, […]
Janis’s Story: Parkinson’s Disease
When Janis Yelton gratefully enrolled in a ground-breaking study at the University of Cincinnati Neuroscience Institute, one of four institutes of the UC College of Medicine and UC Health, she was wracked by pain from advanced Parkinson’s disease, taking 32 pills a day, and no longer able to work. Three years later, Janis still cries […]
Brian’s Story: Vocal Cord Cyst
One by one, the symptoms of a throat problem tapped on the pastor’s door. Pastor Brian Tome, leader of Crossroads Church and speaker of five weekly messages to a following of 15,000, acknowledged the symptoms and tried to dismiss them. He was frequently clearing his throat and coughing, but of course he used his voice […]
Jim’s Story: Pituitary Tumor
One turn of events led to another, and so it was that Jim, and not his wife, took Jim’s 87-year-old father to his appointment with the dermatologist for the first time. And so it was that the dermatologist was not Jim’s father’s regular dermatologist, but Dr. Charlie Becknell, of Lexington, Ky., who was taking his […]
Lynne’s Story: Brain Metastasis
Semiretired and working part-time at a restaurant, Lynne knew something was amiss when she looked at the cash register and then struggled to make her hands produce the correct amount of change. Could she have suffered a stroke? Lynne pushed the thought aside until one of her daughters insisted on taking her to a hospital, […]
Charlie’s Story: Epilepsy
By Charlie Shor I have had many adventures in my 57 years, and I have accomplished much. But the main message of my story, which I have been given the opportunity to share, is that anything is possible. If you have epilepsy, as I do, it says nothing about who you are or what you […]