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Who Are the People
With Multiple Sclerosis?

Who are the people with Multiple Sclerosis?

We are your parents, your children, your brothers and sisters; we are the person down the street; we are that lady or fellow who may walk a little "funny" at the grocery store. We are the people that you "tsk, tsk" over because we might look "too good" to use a handicapped parking space. We are the folks who may not be able to get out to the Church or Temple every weekend; we are your peers; we are human beings.

We are the face of Multiple Sclerosis. A face that is nearly every ethnicity; that comes from nearly every country, that does not discriminate by social standing or class or financial or educational background or language or religion. We are both able to walk unassisted and use canes and walkers and wheelchair users; we jog and swim and partake in sports; we are housebound, we use scooters; we need respirators. We are everything in between. We are visually impaired and we are not. We are at every level of physical ability.

Of course, we "look so good" while we're doing it. We hear that phrase every day of our lives. Sometimes that phrase is meant as a compliment and sometimes it is meant to hurt or meant to shame us into doing something of which we may not be currently capable. We may be able to do that something tomorrow, though, or next week; Multiple Sclerosis is like that. We are like that.

Some of us are hearing impaired; yet all of us occasionally have people talk louder to us. "HOW ARe YOU D-O-I-N-G????" they'll scream, speaking to us as though we were either hearing or intellectually impaired. "YOU LOOK SO G-O-O-D!!!!"

Of course we do. Thank you very much. We are, in fact, the very best looking people in the handicapped community. We have secret beauty pageants every year, to decide which of our number is the absolute best-looking. Billy Crystal emcees, as his character Fernando; "...and you look MAHVeLOUS my dear; absolutely M-A-H-V-e-L-O-U-S..."

We are brave. We are fragile. We want to live, and we want to end it all. We look for support and we want to stand alone. We are everyperson. We are the People with Multiple Sclerosis. We are People, Just Like You....

— Virginia Sanchez

Copyright Virginia Sanchez.
Used with permission
Ginny's Place

Multiple Sclerosis Pages On My Site

Multiple Sclerosis and My Life: Information about how Multiple Sclerosis has affected me and why I decided to create these pages.  ««»»

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)  ««»»

Multiple Sclerosis Links and Resources: A boatload of links. Wazillions of links. And a few more. But . . . Even though there are many links here, these are not all the links. Be sure to check the other sections for the specialty links.  ««»»

Local and Non-US Organizations: Includes state by state listings of local organizations, including the chapters of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.  ««»»

Chat, Forums and eMail Discussion Groups  ««»»

Commercial Sites and Commercial Journals  ««»»

General Medical Sites and Other Resources: Not specifically related to Multiple Sclerosis, but offering general medical information. Many feature search engines to locate Multiple Sclerosis information or Multiple Sclerosis sections within their site.  ««»»

Personal Stories: Personal websites featuring the webmaster's personal experience with Multiple Sclerosis. Most also include some links to other Multiple Sclerosis resources.  ««»»

Books: Books about Multiple Sclerosis (like you really needed that description).  ««»»

Who Are the People With Multiple Sclerosis?: A moving essay by Virginia Sanchez (used with permission).  ««»»

Multiple Sclerosis and Children: Special information about MS in children and why I hope to honor them with my site. ««»»

Guest Article: Social Security and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) - Applying for Social Security Disability with Multiple Sclerosis: A guest article by John Dowling, the Senior editor of Social Security Disability Help.  ««»»

Guest Article: Stem Cells Showing Great Promise in Remyelinization: A guest article by Daryl Clayton Kennedy.  ««»»

A Measure of Time - My Life With MS: This book by Lauren Singer is available directly from the author. This page on my site provides a tiny amount of publicity for this book. By the way, her dog is named Fred Huggins.   ««»»  

As for Tomorrow I Cannot Say: 33 Years with Multiple Sclerosis: I review this book by Diana Neutze.  ««»»  

Life on Cripple Creek - essays on Living with Multiple Sclerosis: I review this book by Dean Kramer.  ««»»  

My Story: A Photographic essay on Life with Multiple Sclerosis: I review this book by Amelia Davis.  ««»»  

When the Road Turns - Inspirational Stories About People with MS: I review this book by Margot Russell.  ««»»  

A Special Note If You Jumped Into My Site
Directly to This Page

This topic is just a part of my overall website. After you check out this topic, you might like to explore the rest of my site and get to know me better.  I recommend that you start with my "Home" Page, then go to the "Front Door", then to "Stuff About Me" and finally, just explore the site. The buttons on the left will take you there.

If You Would Like to Link to My Multiple Sclerosis Pages

Many webmasters only want people to link to the "primary" page of a website. I have a different view.

Because of the importance of Multiple Sclerosis to me I actually encourage other Multiple Sclerosis sites to link directly to my Multiple Sclerosis pages. Click here to find out my special requests for linking to my Multiple Sclerosis pages.

Awards

The following awards were awarded specifically for the
James S. Huggins' Refrigerator Door: Multiple Sclerosis Pages.

Outstanding Website Award   1999  sponsored by Disability Network	Outstanding Website Award 1999 awarded 25.Oct.1999 by the Disability Network

	editor's Choice Award awarded 26.Oct.1999 by HealingWell.com

	Facing Challenge Award awarded 30.Oct.1999 by Facing Challenge Award

	Helping Hands Award awarded 15.Nov.1999 by Living With Multiple Sclerosis

Directory Links

This section of my site (James S. Huggins' Refrigerator Door: Multiple Sclerosis Pages), is listed in the following directories.

	Good Health Directory linked 20.Mar.2000

	HealingWell.com linked 26.Oct.1999 (see also editor's Choice Award above)

	Health-Library linked 21.Aug.2000

	HealthLinks linked 02.Feb.2001

	Medexplorer linked 02.Feb.2001

	This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information of the Health On the Net Foundation: you can verify that here.

	This site was a Medinex Certified Health Site and subscribed to the Medinex Code of ethics. [NB: The above links point to an archive previous page. hosted by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. The assets of Medinex were sold in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy sale in March 2003. The site is no longer functional.]