Woody Traylor:  

uring grad school. Almost inexplicably, that illness went into remission in 1982 or so, and has not recurred. Obviously, Pat and I have counted our blessings many times for this surprising outcome. However, around 1992 I began having neurologically based problems with balance, leg and hand numbness & weakness. Diagnosis was quite difficult, but my Doctors thought they discovered the cause when an MRI showed a compression fracture in my spine which put pressure on my spinal cord. After several surgeries and unpleasant recoveries, we all thought this had been the silver bullet and any residual symptoms could be blamed on the spinal cord injury itself. After the 3rd & final surgery in '94, I improved slowly over the next few years. I remained active and employed. I traveled a considerable amount (one year I had about 300,000 domestic air miles). Pat and I traveled to Mexico, Canada, St Maarten, Barbados, St THomas, London (separately, Pat with her mother on a tour of Europe, me for a speaking engagement). and most of the major cities in the US. Despite some continuing issues seemingly carried over from the back surgeries, I felt nothing new was going on. By 1998, I had developed enough old and new symptoms to be convinced something else was going on. After a couple of years of many Doctors, mostly neurologists, I was finally given a couple of tests that led to the conclusion that I had Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In fact, my Dr. called me with my diagnosis the day before my sister, Diane Henry, passed away. She died of Cancer but had MS for about 30 years. My Drs. concluded I have Primary Progessive MS which is encountered less than the more prevalent form of MS which is relapsing-remitting MS. (As another tangent, Pat and I are quite amused when the Drs. on the TV program House always seem to mention MS as a possible diagnosis for virtually every patient.) As a result of this diagnosis and the continued worsening of symptoms, I finally retired on disability in May of '01. Since then, I have continued to worsen in symptoms. For instance, when I retired I used a cane to assist me in walking. I am now prety much wheelchair-bound. I am able to walk a few step with a rolling walker, transfer to/from bed, bath, car,and chairs. And thoughout all of this, my wife has been right with me, to help when I drop my keys, help to get me up when I fall, & help with a thousand other things which I had always taken for granted. Before I contracted MS, I'm sure I was difficult enough to live with. Add in the MS and its effects, I'm just not sure how Pat has been able to persevere, but I pray thanks to God that she is here to help & love me everyday. I don't want to give the impression that everything in my life has come up "craps". I have counted myself so very lucky to have found and maried Pat when I did, that we had two wonderful boys who have made us proud more times than can be counted, that I had a somewhat successul career doing something I most of the time enjoyed, that I now have a precious healthy grandson, and many more things too numerous to mention here. I hope I've not bored anyone who has taken time to read this. I promise to write again about the more positive aspects of the life I've had. Please take up the challenge I laid down up front and write something you want to share with us all. I have found this to be rather cathartic for me and you may find that if you need such a thing, it might provide something good for you as well. Woody Traylor GW'67 UR'71 FSU'73 BTW, if you notice my favorite outdoor activities, I originally had checked nothing because MS stopped the activities I did enjoy. So, I fudged a bit by listing stuff I used to do (e.g., tennis, golf, basketball, volleyball, football(touch of course), and coaching youth basketball, football and baseball). Now, I enjoy watching these activities and trying to remember the times when I could participate.