This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Hi folks,

Just wanted to let everybody know that I'm going to be interviewed live on the Internet Tuesday night, September 7, at 9:30 PM New York time. The interview will be part of a series called "MS Voices", and I was very flattered to be asked to participate. I'm astonished by how well my "Wheelchair Kamikaze" blog has been received, and rather than ask too many questions, I'm trying to just enjoy the ride, and along the way hopefully help some of my fellow MS patients in their dealings with the disease.

I expect the interview to cover a wide range of MS related topics, from treatment strategies to some of the psychological and philosophical ramifications of living life with a chronic illness. The interviewer specifically wants me to talk about CCSVI, so I expect that will take up much of the time. If you care to listen, here's a link to the registration page:

http://www.theselfhealingcoach.com/msvoices/

Signed up Marc, looking forward to that - best of luck.
Funny storyI need to share after reading your profile in the link. It says you like to drive your wheelchair fast hence "kamikaze".
I also love to rip in my TiLite chair especially down hill. In April I was getting off a Westjet flight . There is only a winding down ramp while exiting the plane in our small local airport. On the last part of the ramp I just let my chair rip and at the very bottom the front wheel of my wheelchair caught a large dent that was narrowing the side flange on the ramp. My chair stopped dead and I went face first onto the tarmac . I somehow avoided significant injury and since then Westget has a policy where they basically insist on helping people in chairs down that ramp. I just tell to screw off and rip down at a slower speed, it was lol.

Gary, stories like that are very funny as long as you do magically avoid serious injury. Otherwise, not so funny…

I was once hightailing it down 10th Ave. here in Manhattan, soon after a light snowfall. The center of the sidewalks were clear of snow and ice, but the outer edges were not. I got stuck behind two slow-moving pedestrians, and just couldn't stand being forced to travel at such a slow speed. So, I swung wide of them, at top speed, and wound up on the icy part of the sidewalk. Needless to say, power wheelchairs don't handle icy conditions all that well, and I wasn't able to turn back onto the cleaned up part of the pavement.

Moving at full speed (8.5 mph) I slammed head-on into a parking meter, the poll of which which miraculously wound up getting stopped by the edge of my seat cushion, right between my legs. Another few inches and I'd be singing soprano. Somehow, the foot rest on my chair skewed the impact just enough so that one of my legs did not hit the pole, which definitely would have shattered bone.

After sitting there dazed for about a minute, I finally realized that I was okay, and a bunch of pedestrians helped dislodge the chair from the ice and the parking meter. The chair too, was unharmed.

Needless to say, I was soon back on my merry way, zipping along at full speed, just very careful about not hitting any ice…

It's tonight at 9:30 est

wish I could figure out how to access it. I signed up but can't find it on the site yep, I'm not to savvy with this stuff....

~^,,^~

hannakat wrote:wish I could figure out how to access it. I signed up but can't find it on the site yep, I'm not to savvy with this stuff....

~^,,^~

Just click on this link, scroll down to the bottom where it asks you register. You will then receive an email with what to do next, try that


http://www.theselfhealingcoach.com/msvoices/

Got it! Had to wait for another email to arrive. Great interview Marc!

Staying in the moment....

Trish
~^,,^~

Well spoken , Marc. I feel like I got to know you a bit there. I share a lot in common with you. I used to swim ( competitively ). My MS has also been described as very atypical in many ways. My worst fear in life was that someday I would be confined to a wheelchair and kind of like you symbolically wouldn't accept the idea until my beautiful wife pestered me enough . It was a great day that first day with my chair also.
Your long, thorough explanations were very understandable from a lay perspective as evidenced by the headnods coming from my wife as she does not spend as much time reading on MS and ccsvi as I do. She got a lot out of what you said.
I enjoyed your sense of humour.
Keep up the good work , gary