(I first published this essay back in 2015, and it’s become my New Year’s tradition to post it again every January 1. I think the sentiments expressed can be appreciated by most people dealing with MS, especially those with the the progressive type. This last year has been pretty rough, but I hope to have some new essays written soon. I know I’ve said that before during the last few months, but this time I mean it! In the meantime, Happy New Year’s to all!) Back in in my healthy days, before MS, I always loved New Year’s Eve. While many of my fellow habitual night crawlers derided the n ..read more

(Yes, folks, I am still alive and kicking. Well, maybe not kicking - thank you MS - but alive, anyway. The last several months have been tough but I’m clawing my way back and plan on writing some new essays soon. In the meantime, here’s an old essay from 2013, in which I describe my time in The Twilight Zone– Really!)  A memory arrived in the mail the other day. It wasn’t unexpected, as I had ordered the item on eBay about a week earlier. My wife helped me open the package and as its contents emerged my eyes fell upon an object that seemed like a lost piece of myself, a relic long ..read more

Sorry, but this is yet another post – hopefully the last – about my ongoing struggles with kidney pain, catheters, and UTIs (Urinary Tract Infections). I've written three previous essays in this rather regrettable series, the first detailing my waking with horrendous pain in my right lower back, which led me to visit the emergency room twice in three days (click here), the second delving into the myriad pleasures of having a catheter inserted into my wing wong (click here), and the third detailing my contracting a UTI (Unwanted Trickle Interference) as a result of that catheterization, includ ..read more

The hamsa, an ancient symbol used to ward off the evil eye. I’m sure many Wheelchair Kamikaze readers have noticed that I haven’t put up a post in some time. To those who haven’t noticed I say, what’s up with that? Do you not wait for my every new entry with bated breath? Or, at the very least, with bad breath? As they say, bad breath is better than no breath at all… In any event, the reason I haven’t posted anything in quite a while is that the hellish saga that I recounted in my last two posts lives on. Just a quick recap: in the first those two posts (click here) I wrote of waking ..read more

First, I'd like to thank all of the kind souls who sent me notes of support and advice since my last post, which detailed the recent medical tumult I was going through. I apologize for not replying to any of them, as it turns out the events recounted in my last essay where only opening stanzas of a longer composition. I'm afraid most of the notes and comments sent will have to be left without response, but please know they are appreciated beyond words. And now, on with the continuation of my woeful saga.… When last I left you, dear readers, I told the tale of my supposed kidney stone and the ..read more

I was fully planning on writing a new blog post this weekend, filled with actionable MS information, wisdom, humor, pathos, and astonishing literary flourishes. Instead, I was sidelined by the WORST pain I've ever experienced in my life. Woke up Saturday morning feeling relatively okay, but after a few minutes was hit with a horrendous stabbing pain radiating from the right side of my lower back. The pain was so intense that it pretty much paralyzed all the parts of me that aren't already paralyzed. I was rendered dazed, confused, and writhing in bed, and it took me several minutes to ..read more

Image via Wikipedia (I rarely deviate from the MS/disability theme of this blog, but there are some things that are more important than multiple sclerosis. This essay was first posted seven years ago, in 2011. Given the current ruinously divisive degraded and degrading political climate in the United States of America, I believe the words and deeds of Robert Kennedy are more important now than ever. With a few changes, perhaps a word or phrase here or there, the speech Kennedy delivers in the video at the end of this essay is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago and should be ..read more

(I’ve been fighting the creeping cruds for the last couple of weeks and haven’t felt up to composing  a new essay. so, I’ll offer up a “Best of Wheelchair Kamikaze“. This composition generated a lot of response when it was first posted about two years ago, and I hope you find it worthwhile the second time around. Stay tuned for a new essay, coming just as soon as the cruds recede…) Later in May I’ll be marking the 13th anniversary of my official diagnosis with Multiple Sclerosis. Believe you me, the date won’t be punctuated by any festivities, but more likely with a ..read more

In a development more shocking than the capture of a live Bigfoot, a recent Goldman Sachs research report (click here and here) states in black-and-white what many have long suspected: curing diseases is not a viable business model for the companies that develop and manufacture drugs. Instead, drugs that turn terrible diseases into treatable illnesses which are kept under control by the perpetual use of medicines that sustain patients but don’t cure them have become marvels of modern capitalism. Perhaps unwittingly, the Goldman Sachs report confirms that our current medical research model is ..read more

Okay, all of my fellow progressive MSers, we finally have a day to call our own! This Wednesday, March 28, 2018, will be the first ever Progressive MS Day, a time to draw the world’s attention to this most debilitating form of the scourge that is multiple sclerosis. As most of you already know, the majority of MSers (approximately 85%) are stricken with the relapsing-remitting form of the disease (RRMS) which is, of course, no picnic itself. Despite the advent of immunosuppressive drugs that effectively reduce relapse rates and the formation of new lesions in relapsing patients – medicines t ..read more