[bksvol-discuss] Re: Author with MS doesn't suffer in silence
- From: Grandma Cindy <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:34:56 -0800 (PST)
It does sound like a great book.
I wonder if the author included Roger Smith. For those
of you who are too young to have been fans of 77
Sunset Strip, he was, as IMDB says in his m in
iography (I couldn't remember his last name and so
looked him up) he was handsome and debonair. Then he
was struck with mysathenia gravis. The last time I saw
him he was in a wheel chair at some award ceremony for
his wife, Ann-Margaret. Apparently he turned his
talents from acting to managing her career and her
comeback after she fell from a height and,I think,
broke her back. I was happy to learn that his disease
has stabilized--I guess that just means hasn't become
any worse and he's still living. They've been married
for 40 years, and that was good to hear, too.
G.Cindy
I
--- "Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> This sounds like a great book for the collection.
>
> New York Daily News, NY, USA
> Sunday, December 30, 2007
>
> Author with MS doesn't suffer in silence
>
> By GINA SALAMONE
>
> Sunday, December 30th 2007, 4:00 AM
>
> Cohen says the seriously ill share 'almost an
> unspoken language.'
>
> Caption: Cohen with the people he interviewed,
> including Buzz Bay (top r.),
> Denise Glass (seated, l.) and Ben Cumbo
> (foreground).
>
> Richard M. Cohen once shied away from sharing the
> pain and frustration of
> living with two serious illnesses.
>
> But the three-time Emmy-winning producer and
> journalist finally let it all
> out in a memoir published four years ago. Now he's
> allowing others to do the
> same in his book "Strong at the Broken Places:
> Voices of Illness, a Chorus
> of Hope," in stores Wednesday.
>
> Cohen traveled the country, spending quality time
> over three years with five
> men and women suffering various chronic diseases.
> Coaxing them out of their
> shells by relating his own suffering, he got them to
> talk about the most
> feared facets of sickness - everything from coping
> with embarrassing side
> effects to facing an early death.
>
> He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 25.
> Three and a half decades
> later, the disease of the nervous system has left
> Cohen legally blind and
> unable to walk without a cane. He has also fought
> off two bouts of colon
> cancer.
>
> Married to "Today" show co-anchor Meredith Vieira,
> Cohen had trouble talking
> to his wife and their three kids about his anguish.
> In his autobiography,
> "Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness: A
> Reluctant Memoir," he disclosed
> all the details.
>
> "I really was reluctant because I fought tooth and
> nail against revealing
> myself," Cohen admits. "I didn't want to tell my own
> story because the
> thought of actually laying open my life was
> unthinkable. But it became
> apparent to me that that was the only way the book
> was going to get
> published."
>
> So Cohen told all, but then realized there were
> others who needed to do the
> same.
>
> "I always had this interest in learning how other
> people cope with illness,
> and it was something I couldn't explore in
> 'Blindsided,'" he says. "When the
> book came out and I attended a number of forums, I
> was quite taken aback
> that so many people showed up in wheelchairs and on
> walkers and canes. Three
> hundred people would come with their own stories.
> And I was totally
> mesmerized by what they were saying."
>
> More than 90 million Americans have chronic
> illnesses, according to the
> Centers for Disease Control.
>
> "Chronic illness is a snapshot of America now, as we
> become the oldest
> population in the history of the country," Cohen
> points out.
>
> And the coping mechanisms used by the sick are as
> diverse as the diseases
> they have.
>
> Cohen couldn't understand why Denise Glass, who's
> featured in his new book,
> was so adamant in her "no help" attitude.
>
> Glass has ALS, an incurable, usually fatal disease
> that breaks down neurons
> and causes complete paralysis. While she's far from
> that point, her speech
> and movement have slowed, and she has lost some
> coordination.
>
> But Glass, who's divorced and lives alone, dismisses
> any suggestions to get
> a caregiver. Her biggest fear is losing her
> independence.
>
> She has given up looking for a love interest,
> insisting she's better off
> without a husband and kids to leave behind or watch
> her suffer.
>
> And Glass isn't close to her parents and siblings,
> either - saying they
> never told her they were sorry about her diagnosis,
> and that they didn't
> even sit next to her or hold her hand when the
> doctor told her.
>
> "Denise was a tough nut to crack," says Cohen.
> "Because she's so grievously
> ill, she's a bit hardened and a little defensive
> about the lifestyle she's
> chosen, the solitude."
>
> With patience, Cohen eventually got Glass to
> introduce him to her family,
> and to admit that her cats comforted her in a way
> that the humans around her
> never could.
>
> "There's almost an unspoken language among people
> who deal with serious
> illnesses," he says. "It made it a little bit easier
> and a little more
> palatable for the people in the book to know that
> I'd been there, too."
>
> Taking time to build a level of comfort also worked
> with Buzz Bay, a
> 46-year-old from Indiana who remains optimistic
> about his fight against
> non-Hodgkin's lymphoma through his steadfast belief
> in God and heaven.
>
> Unlike Glass, Bay has a spouse and son to find
> comfort in. But he still
> spoke about how isolating illness can be.
>
> "Even when you're surrounded by a loving family and
> an infrastructure of
> support, in the end, you're really in it alone,"
> Cohen explains. "When
> you're in pain or discomfort, my tendency, and the
> tendency of a lot of
> people, is to retreat a little bit. It really is a
> lonely feeling."
>
> Ben Cumbo knows it all too well. He was in college
> during his meetings with
> Cohen. While his peers were mingling and coming home
> late, Cumbo avoided
> parties and was afraid to talk to girls.
>
> Confined to a wheelchair by muscular dystrophy, he
> admits he's angry and sad
> about his plight, and that his disability has made
> him self-conscious.
>
> "Ben went through a very difficult process of trying
> to work through his
> hangups about what other people thought about him,"
> says Cohen. "He always
> instinctively thought people saw him as less of a
> person and held him in
> lower regard."
>
> But Cumbo actually worked this problem out through
> his discussions with
> Cohen. "In our last meeting, he said that the book
> had forced him to look at
> himself and the way he responds to other people and
> deals with his fears,"
> Cohen says. "We sometimes make things darker than
> they are."
>
>
>
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2007/12/30/2007-12-30_author_with_ms_doesnt_suffer_in_silence-1.html
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