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I feel a certain affinity for Scott Hanselman. For starters his last name is very Germanic. We are both programmers (he is a much more talented one than I am), and our wifes are African American - although and please forgive the pun Scott - his wife is more African and mine more American. Born and raised in Los Angeles

Our families share something else as well. The need to deal with an unwanted illness. Scott has diabetes… my wife has Multiple Sclerosis. Luckily she has the recurring/remitting version as opposed to the progressive one. For 20 years she has been relatively free of exhaserbations but this week she got hit with a wammy. Within the space of 24 hours her right leg was mostly paralized. The Neurologist, a wonderful gentleman who has known her through 25 years of illmess, indicated that the episode is “classic”. A textbook example of a plaque that has attacked part of her spinal cord and hence the inability of the leg to function properly.

Shaun has taken huge doses of steroids for the past 3 days (1000 mg of Solumedrol). Luckily she is an RN and can tell me exactly how to hang an IV bag. There has been some progress as a result of the IV infusion but its relatively small. For the next 21 days she has to go through a bunch of steroid pills as well. I hope and pray this episode will resolve itself and she will regain her former functionality. If you read this, take a second and send some good thoughts her way (unbeknownst) and if you are a practitioner of a religion, a prayer for her is much appreciated.