I’ve been fortunate to have recently had essays of mine published in HuffPost and MS Now.

MS Now & Christina Applegate

Bad Moms. Christina Applegate’s acting in that film as the tightly-wound, alpha mom is my favorite role of hers. Her work as a local TV news reporter in Anchorman is a close second.

But now she’s playing the role of a best selling author with the publication of her autobiography, You with the Sad Eyes. In that book, she discusses the impact of multiple sclerosis on her life and how it effectively ended her acting career as she was in the midst of filming the TV series Dead to Me. Inspired by her authentic and raw approach, I wrote an essay about how her frankness gives the rest of us living with MS permission to follow her lead.

An excerpt:

In a recent interview on “Good Morning America,” host Robin Roberts asked Applegate if she’s still grieving her 2021 diagnosis. The actor said that the disease still does “suck,” and that none of the people she knows with MS would ever say that they’re “great.”

“There is no ‘great,’” she said. “There’s a better day and a less s––––y day. … Where am I with acceptance? Not at all. I hate it.”

This wasn’t a “woe is me” response. It was real. It was something I’d say if I was being truthful about living with relapsing remitting MS during summer days when I’m trapped inside air-conditioned spaces so I don’t become nauseated, lose limb strength or become cognitively fuzzy as my vision becomes impaired. It. Sucks.

Read the whole piece here.

HuffPost: An Angry American at the Olympics & Chronically Ill Affected by Health Insurance Cuts

The folks at HuffPost were kind enough to publish two pieces I’ve written over the past few months.

One essay was about a shocking interaction I had at the ice skating pairs medal competition at the Milan Winter Olympics with a fellow American who was triggered by the fact that I was wearing a face mask (to protect a family member who is currently undergoing cancer treatment). While I had numerous concerns prior to heading to Italy for my once-in-a-lifetime Olympic trip with my spouse, this bizarre run-in with an American who was filled with political acrimony wasn’t on my Bingo card.

An excerpt:

I’d traveled across the Atlantic Ocean, fretting about my son and about how U.S. citizens would be received at an international event, only to be subjected to vitriol from an American who’d packed her divisive politics with her.

… Since that night at the skating rink, I’ve wondered about the woman who sat next to me. Did she spend her time in Milan spreading the same, tired cruelty we’re experiencing stateside? Did she experience any joy other than feeling as though she “owned” a lib?

Read the whole piece here.

Late last year HuffPost published an essay I wrote about the irreversible impact of the decision to pass a federal budget that didn’t include government subsidies to help 22 million folks pay for their Affordable Care Act premiums. To MS patients — including a woman I interviewed for my book Uncomfortably Numb 2 — the interruption in their medical care can lead to permanent neurological damage that could impact their ability to work, to walk, to think.

An excerpt:

I wonder if the eight Democratic-aligned senators who voted to reopen the government based on the mere promise of a vote on ACA subsidies — the same lawmakers who this summer passionately waxed on about the dire consequences to Americans’ health if the One Big Beautiful Bill passed — would be willing to leave the fate of their loved ones’ health to the whims of Republicans who for years have aspired to plunge a dagger through the ACA. Would they be willing to risk the irreparable worsening of a loved one’s chronic illness (like the loss of mobility, of manual dexterity, of vision, all MS symptoms) on the pledge of good-faith negotiations with a party whose members have demonstrated they are faithless?

Read the whole piece here.