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I’ve always been a huge fan of Down East Magazine, widely considered the best magazine about life in Maine. No matter how bookish you may be, no matter how learned in the written word, it’s the stunning photography that draws you into the magazine. Only after you find a comfortable spot to delve into the… Continue reading Down East Magazine Publishes an Excerpt From My Memoir

Hope can be an effective tool to ease human suffering. In many cases, though, it’s not enough. After my diagnosis 15 years ago, I set out to become the most informed patient on the planet. Even though there were no FDA-approved treatments for primary progressive multiple sclerosis (and there still aren’t), I knew the answer… Continue reading As Hope Fades, I Press on: Here’s How

Three dates I’ll always remember: On October 22, 2001, I was diagnosed with MS. On July 11, 2008, I started using a wheelchair. On August 20, 2016, I walked my daughter down the aisle. People from all over the country descended on Hardy Farm in Fryeburg, Maine, that weekend. Dave and Stephanie King, who got… Continue reading My Daughter’s Wedding

Once upon a time, in a faraway land called Happy Valley, there lived a good and honest sharecropper, his wife, and his four capable sons, who were actually two sets of twins. One set of twins, sturdy and strong, could stand up to anything. These brothers were so in sync with one another that many… Continue reading The Parable of the Farmer and His Four Sons

One reason I love summer is ice cream cones: soft serve, hard, even frozen yogurt. But it takes a certain amount of dexterity to eat a cone. Not only must I hold it in my hand and bring it up to my mouth, but I have to rotate it every once in a while, or… Continue reading I Lost My Ice Cream Cone Mojo

Screw it. I use the word disability. In fact, I just did a quick search of my book manuscript, and I found it 73 times. When I employ grammar checking software, called Grammarly, and it encounters the word disabled, it highlights it as “politically incorrect language,” and suggests physically challenged as a replacement. No thank… Continue reading Boston’s 2016 Abilities Expo — A Feel-Good Name if There Ever Was One

People are stubborn. People keep trying to establish a daily ferry service between Portland, Maine and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. People keep failing. I admit, Kim and I have often said, “that looks like fun,” as we watched the impressive ferries come and go out of Portland all summer. But whenever we checked the prices we were… Continue reading Our trip on The Cat Ferry to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

Kate Milliken, my friend and the founder of MyCounterpane.com, invited me to be a panelist for a webinar on Wednesday, August 31, at 11 am Eastern time. I’ll be joined by Kate, who will moderate, and Bruce Bebo, Executive Vice President of Research, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. This will be a live conversation about… Continue reading I’m a Panelist on a Live Webinar about MS Clinical Trials