March 25, 2011
To look at lifelong athlete Keith Terry, who climbed Mount Baker last year on his first try, you would never know he has multiple sclerosis.
And that, says the 46-year-old Bellingham resident, is precisely the reason he formed a fundraising team for an MS Walk on Saturday, April 2.
An executive recruiter in the biotech industry, Terry moved to Bellingham three years ago from Long Beach, Calif., with his wife, Deborah, and their 16-year-old daughter, Maddy.
Question: Keith, we sometimes don’t know who is living with MS, right?
Answer: There really are people in the community you wouldn’t know have MS, yet often have huge medical needs and face financial challenges.
Q: What’s been your experience?
A: MS usually strikes people in their 20s and 30s. Ten years ago, I thought I was having a heart attack when I became numb in my upper body. But I was told in the emergency room that I was not having a heart attack. Over the course of about two weeks my entire torso became numb from my neck to my bellybutton. A spinal tap didn’t show anything, but an MRI eventually showed lesions in my brain and cervical spine.
Q: You seem so healthy now.
A: I never know when I’m going to suffer from fatigue, so I have to get enough rest, but I’m really incredibly fortunate. Because I work, I have health insurance and I now can take a daily shot of a medication known as Copaxone. This costs $115 per day.
I used to go a million miles an hour and I had more energy than anyone you could imagine. Now Deborah says I just have normal energy, and I have to be aware of how much I can do in one day.
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