JENNIFER K MAHAL -- OFF MY DESK

“MS -- It’s not a magazine for feminists,” says the sign at a Warner

Avenue bus kiosk. “MS -- It’s not a software company,” says the one on

Brookhurst Street. The punch line of the signs they haven’t put up yet

says “MS -- It’s a neurological nightmare.”

This I know. I grew up watching MS -- multiple sclerosis -- slowly eat

away at my mother’s abilities. Her ability to walk, to speak clearly,

even to control her emotions have ebbed with the tides of this disease.

Sometimes I look at her, and I don’t know where my mother has gone. There

are around 3,000 people living with multiple sclerosis in Orange County.

No one knows why the illness strikes the central nervous system, but it’s

not directly inherited or contagious, according to the National Multiple

Sclerosis Society.

My mother does not accept the diagnosis. The doctors made the call more

than 15 years ago, but my mother doesn’t believe it. Her slurred speech,

her inability to walk despite hours of therapy, the weakness of her body

-- no, it is not MS, she has said time and time again.

Despite the denial, she joined the local Multiple Sclerosis Society

chapter. Just to make friends, she said. And she looked into various

therapies -- beta interferon, vitamin regimens, holistic food diets, etc.

Nothing worked. There is no cure for what she has.

Late last year, she broke her leg. It was during her stint in a nursing

home that my mother became momentarily convinced of the diagnosis by a

physician’s assistant. I say momentarily because she has since recanted.

However, the statement of the woman visiting my mother stuck with me. She

described my mother’s descent into the disease without having looked at

her charts. “I’ve seen this before,” said the physician’s assistant. And

suddenly it all clicked into place.

I started studying MS. What I’ve found is the disease is frustrating in

its unpredictability. My mom may never get worse. Or she could take a

downward turn tomorrow. Not enough is known about the illness.

That lack of information is one of the reasons the Orange County chapter

of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society has embarked on its public

awareness campaign.

By telling the public what MS is not, the organization hopes to make

everyone aware of what MS is. By holding a walkathon on April 9 at Bolsa

Chica State Beach, it hopes to raise money in search of a cure.

Maybe one day the neurological nightmare will end.

o7 The Orange County chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society

can be reached by calling (949) 752-1680 or f7 (o7 800f7 ) o7

FIGHT-MS.f7

* JENNIFER K MAHAL is city editor of the Independent. She can be reached

by calling 965-7172, Ext. 21 or by e-mail at o7

[email protected] .