b'Life with MSAttitude Makes aAttitude Makes aDierence with MSDierence with MSGrowing up with the disease,it helps to look at the bright sideBy John MitchellApril 14, 2007 will be a date that sticks out teeth, feeding myself, playing, and riding ain my familys mind forever. I was 4 years old. tricycle.Who really remembers much of life at that age? My neurologist said if I was going to have aIt was Saturday morning and I couldnt walk, second attack it would be within six months.it hurt to move and I had a terrible headache. Sure enough, she was right. We had been toAfter two trips to our local pediatrician, my the movie store to rent a movie. My mom hadhealth continued to decline. My parents gotten me set up on her bed to watch the movie.decided to take me to the Childrens Hospital I told her I couldnt see it. Confused, she askedin Birmingham, Ala., to be checked out. me, What do you mean you cant see it?It is amazing how in a blink of an eye a Quickly, she realized what was happening.persons life can change forever. I ended up Sheimmediatelycalledthenurseand wein PICU in a medically induced coma, with a were en route to Birmingham. By the time weshunt in my head to drain o the excess uid reached the hospital, I had lost sight in bothfrom my brain. The doctors were scratching eyes. Immediately they started me on IVtheir heads, unsure of what was going on. After steroids. After 24 hours, my sight beganmany days of tests and beginning steroids, improving and slowly returned to normal. Dr. Ness, my neurologist, diagnosed me with Over the next five years, life seemed toADEMa big word I still cant pronounce, return to normal. (If there is such a thing?) Lifeacute demyelinating encephalomyelitis. This continued with follow-up doctor appointmentsmeans my immune system attacked my brain and MRIs, but my health was stable. I playedinstead of a bacteria or virus, and ate away baseball, which I really enjoyed. I fell in lovethe protective covering leaving many lesions. with music and began taking piano lessons.Once I nally woke up and started improving, Waterparks, building with Legos, school, andall I said was, Im hungry! The part of the brain traveling with family were things that occupiedthat receives the message from your stomach my time. I was able to be a normal kid.thatyouarefullwasaected,alongwith The summer of 2012, I went to churchmany other areas. Because of being in bed camp in Texas. It was a week of long days, theand not walking for more than 16 days, I had blazing heat, and not much rest. My bodylost the ability to walk, and my coordination could not handle it all and I had another attack.and balance was way o. I spent many hours This time I lost sight in my right eye only. Ain therapy learning how to do basic life skills round of steroids and a hospital stay and Iall over again such as sitting up, brushing my was on the mend again. 46 msfocusmagazine.org'