NOW THAT I AM SICK, WHO AM I? (written in 1998 - by Barbara) In August of 1995 I was diagnosed with Atypical M.S. and it attendants - CFIDS, Fibromyalgia, Toxic Brain Injury, Neurally Mediated Hypotension, Neuropathy and a host of other concurrent illnesses that basically felt like a death sentence. I had been dragged from doctor to hospital to labs and been poked and prodded and scanned so much since that April I was beginning to think I was going to glow in the dark. At first I was relieved to finally have an answer. I wasn’t losing my mind or suffering from a schizophrenic episode. I had been plagued by depression and panic attacks for years and believed this was it again. This is was somehow just another stone on the pile that was my life. And then I was filled with rage that I was still alive. The doctor should have said, “The good news is, it’s not AIDS. The bad news is, it’s not AIDS.” I had suddenly gone from being someone to being another casualty. And I was only 38...