"A Fortunate Man with MS" Podcast
My name is Gil Greenman. This podcast is a chapter-by-chapter reading of my book, "A Fortunate Man with MS". It tells the story of one person with multiple sclerosis, a very fortunate person! Just as nature has decided to make snowflakes different, the stories of people with MS are all very different. And this is my story, told in the hope that maybe just one person who has been recently diagnosed or has lost hope might hear it. And that, maybe, they will take just one more walk, go to one more workout, move one step away from despair, and strive for one more day to make sense of this strange, often terrible, and occasionally fortunate presence of MS in their lives. (The "A Fortunate Man with MS" Podcast is read by my older brother, Jack Greenman)
Episodes
44 episodes
A Very Special Episode
Hi, this is Jack Greenman. In honor of national MS Awareness Week, which this year is March 9-15, I’m excited to bring you this very special episode of “A Fortunate Man with MS”! For the first time on this podcast, you will hear my brother, Gil...
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4:13
Reasons for Optimism
In my work on mindfulness, I open to what arises: sounds, sensations—including pain—and then, of course, thoughts. They arrive like waves on the ocean. Occasional waves of reality-based optimism are appearing.
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3:14
Our Summer on the Bay Downtown
My amazing wife Lisa shared an idea: “I think Gil and I should come [to the Edgewater Hotel} every Friday in the summer and spend the night. We can have drinks in the bar in the middle of the day with one set of friends and then later have dinn...
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Season 1
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Episode 42
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8:03
Let's Dance
Will the chronic inflammation and lesions that have plagued me and brought a dramatic worsening of my condition for almost two years start to calm down?
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Season 1
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Episode 41
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5:27
Purpose
As my acute troubles continue - chronic brain inflammation with new lesions, losing my vision, inability to feed myself, and confusion- I have been thinking about purpose.
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Season 1
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Episode 40
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3:42
The Old Street
For me, 2018 was like navigating this street in a wheelchair. I am currently sitting stuck in the largest pothole.
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Season 1
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Episode 39
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3:48
Lessons from Mr. Rogers
"It’s you I like, It’s not the things you wear, It’s not the way you do your hair– But it’s you I like The way you are right now . . ."
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Season 1
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Episode 38
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3:19
Samurai
Lying on the wood floor, I played a game with myself. I imagined that I was a samurai sleeping across the threshold of his Lord. Samurai slept on wood without anything else, I thought. So “samurai! Bonsai!”“ Whatever. I was still stuck...
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Season 1
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Episode 37
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3:28
Get Busy Living
“Please call me asap” read the text from my neurologist. This could not be good news.
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Season 1
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Episode 36
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3:56
Mindful Through Terror
These days, my experience of walking feels like climbing a rock face.
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Season 1
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Episode 35
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3:04
Christmas Wolves
There is a story about a Cherokee grandfather teaching his grandson about life.
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Season 1
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Episode 34
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1:56
Gratitude showers our lives with Grace
Grateful and together, we celebrated on Thanksgiving. Now we move forward in Grace to the next moment. And the next.
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Season 1
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Episode 33
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2:01
An Urban Symphony with Extra Needles
After my needles were in, I stared at the ceiling and tried to meditate on my breath. Not today. Frustrated, I smoldered until a set of sounds came together in my conscious mind.
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Season 1
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Episode 32
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3:30
The Story No One Wants to Read
Everyone living with MS knows that each story is individual and unique. The picture of the disease that we paint needs to take into account some of the harsher parts.
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Season 1
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Episode 31
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4:14
At Last, a Disease Modifying Therapy
Then I wake up. But this is no dream. This is the story of my year-long search for a treatment, a disease-modifying therapy that will halt or at least slow this inexorable disease.
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Season 1
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Episode 30
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5:41
11:17am
My dogs are thinking “will he ever get up from the chair and go somewhere else so that something interesting might happen?"
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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3:21
Some Good News from an Old Buddy
My left leg sucks, no two ways about it. But last week it started to suck worse, like a lot worse...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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3:26
Family and Forgiveness, by Pope Francis
"There is no perfect family."
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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2:54
Inspiration on a Newark NJ flight to DC
When we landed, I waited in my seat as usual so as not to hold up deplaning while I embark on yet another rolling airport adventure. I noticed that the soldier was waiting also, and as soon as the last passenger went by, she came over to readju...
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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3:16
No Mud, No Lotus
There’s been a lot of mud described here in the last few posts, so I thought I’d describe a Lotus that bloomed in Washington DC recently.
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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3:31
A Sign for a Broken Road
Gil writes a short poem about the new disabled parking sign in front of his house.
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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1:59
Not MS?
My neurologist sounded frightened “I usually get paged by my office for MRI results like this. I can’t believe I missed them. I don’t want you to see the slides.” She said that these were the worst set of slides of my brain and s...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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5:11