Transcript
A (0:01)
Richard Cohen's network television news career spanned 20 years, during which he covered wars and politics for ABC News, CBS News, and cnn. He received numerous awards in journalism, including three Emmys, a George Foster Peabody, and a Cable Ace Award. Richard was diagnosed with Ms. When he was 25 years old and has been living with Ms. For four decades. He's also a colon cancer survivor. He's the author of two New York Times bestsellers. Blindsided is a revealing memoir detailing his struggles with Ms. And cancer. Strong at the Broken Places follows the lives of five individuals living with serious chronic illnesses. Richard has a new book, Chasing Hope, in which Richard writes about his experience with stem cell therapy and insights into the concept of hope and its relationship with chronic illness. My name is Jan Weaver, Operations Manager for the Accelerated Cure Project. I had the pleasure of interviewing Richard about his journey with Ms. And his new book. What follows is a recording of the conversation we had on Monday, March 19, 2018. Richard, thank you for your time today. You've lived with Ms. Since you were 25 years old. For some, Ms. Has periods of remission in which symptoms improve or even disappear. However, in your case, Ms. Symptoms have slowly and permanently progressed. How do you best cope living with progressive ms?
B (1:37)
Well, there's an inevitability to the journey because as you say, it's a one way trip. You know, you don't get better and then just slowly get worse. So I think you've just got to come to grips with, deal with. The fact that things are going to deteriorate doesn't mean that it's going to happen at any particular rate of speed. It doesn't mean that tomorrow is the end of the world. It's just a fact of life you've got to deal with.
A (2:23)
Right? Right. In your book you state that chronic illness is a family affair. Can you tell me what you mean by that?
B (2:33)
Well, yeah, I mean, when you are, let's say in a hospital bed, you're not really there alone. Your family's with you, you know, your spouse, your partner, whatever, your children. Everybody in the family is affected by illness. Everybody in the family somehow shares in it. And because it can be so limiting for the sick person, very often the rest of the family tries to help as best they can and, and everybody sort of gets involved. You know, it's an odd thing because even with a loving family surrounding you, even with an empathic infrastructure under your roof, there's something very solitary about illness. I'm not contradicting myself here. It is a family affair, but there's Something very lonely about being sick. You know, it is not anybody else who's going to suffer with it. Only you feel the physical effects, only you feel the fatigue or the pain for that matter. And in the end, in the end, you know, we really are alone with this. But it's wonderful. Having said that, it's still wonderful to have a family around you just because they become part of the battle, you know, and, and they, I've noticed in my life as my kids have grown up and they're all in their late 20s now, that they watch over me, they watch out for me. You know, they, they're there with me. You know, if there's rough footing, you know, they sort of take my arm without my saying anything to them. They're just very tuned into it. And I always say, you know, on one hand you don't wish it on your children, and on the other hand, I really do believe that kids become better persons for growing up in a family with illness. They learn very early that life is not fair. They understand on a very basic level that it can be painful. They're fully aware that they're in a position to help. And I think it just becomes second nature too them. And I've seen it and, you know, I've seen decisions they've made in their own lives that I think had everything to do with growing up in a house with sickness. You know, for example, our oldest son, before he went to business school, had a coding project and he mapped out all of the handicapped accessible entrances to the New York subway system, which nobody had ever done. And he didn't do that by accident.