Anne Williams:  

Hello and welcome to my profile. Life has been an amazing journey, full of twists and turns I never imagined! After high school, I attended a small private college in Salt Lake City. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science. I had an internship with the County Inpatient Psychiatric unit that turned into a job. I found a niche in working with the mentally ill. I love their open and uncensored expressions. I was introduced to Recreational Therapy there and saw a great opportunity for myself. I attended the University of Utah and earned a masters degree in Recreational Therapy. I was briefly married and after my divorce I wanted out of Utah! I secured a job in San Jose, California as a program director for a locked psychiatric hospital. I also took on a part time job at a neurological hospital working with survivors of head injury. There I developed an outpatient recreational therapy program with a group of parents who had children that had head injuries. I loved these folks and called them "my kids" even though they were all adults. These families became my California family and I still have close ties with them to this day. My work at the psychiatric hospital was stressful. I realized I needed a new career after my tires were slit and I had a threat on my life by a former employee. I loved science, medicine and people. I saw an opportunity with Merck Pharmaceuticals. In 1990, I joined Merck as a representative in Sunnyvale, California. I had great success with Merck and received numerous promotions. In 1993, I was promoted to Health Science Associate. This was a high science specialist position. I absolutely loved it. The training for this position lasted 3 months with much of it on my own reading and studying. It was during this time I started to notice strange things going on with my body. I had one leg that was numb and one that would give out for no apparent reason. When I moved my head I heard and felt a strange noise and sensation. With each week more symptoms occurred. My husband had just finished the PA program at Stanford and he got me into see a neurologist. I had MRI's of my brain and spine and a spinal tap. It all pointed to one thing, Multiple Sclerosis. I was devastated. I treated it aggressively at Stanford Medical Center. I was able to continue working, often time going to work with an IV in my arm as the treatment was 5 days of high dose steroids to decrease the inflammation caused by the disease. This would be repeated again in 30 days. The first ever treatment for MS became available in 1994 and I had to put my name into a lottery as there was a very limited supply! When my name was drawn I had decided to start my family and I could not take it. I was overjoyed with the birth of my son in 1995. I took a 6 mont...Expand for more