Play Ball

It was 1997 and I was playing centerfield for the Dallas Indians in a recreational baseball league. One particularly balmy April afternoon I lost feeling in my hands while warming up between innings. Something I had done millions of time before, I could no longer do. The whole step and throw stopped working altogether. Without feeling in my hands and newly wobbly legs, I became useless as a baseball player. I took myself out of the game, and sat on the bench confused as to how some of my strongest baseball skills (my arm and my speed) now ceased to exist. I planned what I was going to tell Dr. Godsey when I could get an appointment. It only took three days until he could see me. It would never happen that quickly in today's world. He examined me and discussed the symptoms I was experiencing and, knowing that I grew up in the Northeast and had a bout with vertigo the year before, Dr. Godsey ordered me an MRI, the first of many unpleasant medical tests I would undergo during the course of my disease. I went for the MRI and the results got back to Dr. Godsey with several lesions on my brain. So at my next visit, he broke the news to me, that I had MS. I was devastated by the news. I went to my apartment and drank myself into oblivion. With no support structure in place other than colleagues, more young men with similar values at the time: Make a quick killing trading stocks using other people's money. High stress, high rewards type of business. Now I'm really paying the price for living that lifestyle. My legs don't work nearly as well as I'd like them to sometimes the soreness and muscle cramps from the previous day's workout are a bit unbearable, but I press on, because it ain't over til it's over....