Another refugee...hi.....

My name is Melissa, and I live in Texas. In 2003, I had an attack of optic neuritis. Several months later I was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis with an added bonus of lumbar and cervical spine stenosis. I was set. Those two compliment each other, when one is taking a break, the other steps in to go to work.

I am s-l-o-w-l-y working on my bachelors degree in art history emphasizing in early modern art (c. 1500-1900), with a minor in studio art (painting) which I have already finished. I will be graduating soon, finally, since MS has put a brake on doing it any faster. When I can, I teach art and photography to children at a local arts center. I enjoy that very much. I am an artist and photographer, and with my challenges I am able to claim disasters as masterpieces.

As a hobby, I write screenplays and dream about what they would be like on the big screen. Who knows, ya know? I read...a lot...mostly biographies, art and history books. I am a movie buff, love to travel, am a shopaholic and a collector of very strange things (Living Dead Dolls, Webkinz, angels, rabbits, makeup, pez, state spoons, snow globes...you get the idea). I am a Starbucks freak, when I travel my hotel must be in close range to a Starbucks and a galleria that has a Sephora and L'Occitane shop.

I am a mother to a wonderful teenaged son who is working on his Eagle scout rank. He is homeschooled and doing wonderfully. I am a daughter to the best mother around who has beat cancer and is currently fighting rheumatoid arthritis, so when I have my moments, I look to her for inspiration to smile through it. These are my best friends too.

Let's see...MS wise I take betaseron since I'm allergic to everything else. I am in and out of a wheelchair, use a stick most of the time to get around. If I decide to just wing it thinking I can, I use the wall for support, sometimes rather painfully. Right now I am enjoying the results of tremors. Whenever someone cannot read my handwriting, I advise them that they need to learn how to read MS. Whenever my cognitive functions go out of whack, I just explain that I need to warm up, there is a short somewhere, try again later. And when my vertigo goes off like a roller coaster, I hold on to something and act like the other person is about to fall if they don't do what I am doing. My wheelchair has a sign that reads, 'I am a bad driver. I will run you over'. Surprisingly at Disneyland this past November, people did not listen to that warning. I don't know how many people I took out in the mass of crowds. But they were good sports, must have been the mouse ears and pink bow on the back of my wheelchair.

As you see, I try to smile through it all as much as I can. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Ok, that's enough.