Tackling Multiple Sclerosis: The Frank Hickson Story
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If he and his friends were not going to football games or watching football on television, they were playing football. They even had their own league—the FYFL—or the Front Yard Football League.
As one of the first black players in the youth sports programs at the Orangeburg Recreation Department, he learned valuable lessons about teamwork, leadership, and respect.
A high school injury prevented him from enjoying the type of college career he wanted—and so he turned to coaching. In the early 1990s, however, he began suffering health problems and was given the nonspecific diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.
In this memoir, he shares his golden opportunities to lead, his big dreams and disappointments, his setbacks and achievements—and how his faith, determination, optimism, and love for family led him to succeed in his chosen profession.
Join the author as he opens up about his inspiring fight against MS and how a lifetime of football and faith helped him move the chains.
Shayla C. Freeman M.D.
William Franklin Hickson III, known as “Frank” to family and friends, grew up in Orangeburg, South Carolina. After graduating from Tuskegee University, he worked alongside his childhood idol, Willie Jefferies, the head football coach at Wichita State University, as a football graduate assistant. He went on to earn a master of education degree in athletic administration. He enjoyed a successful football coaching career and retired from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. He lives with his wife in Forest, Virginia.
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Tackling Multiple Sclerosis - Shayla C. Freeman M.D.
Copyright © 2018 William F. Hickson III.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
LifeRich Publishing
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.liferichpublishing.com
1 (888) 238-8637
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
ISBN: 978-1-4897-1734-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4897-1733-7 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4897-1735-1 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018905685
LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 09/27/2018
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Chapter 1 First Quarter
Chapter 2 Second Quarter
Chapter 3 Halftime
Chapter 4 Third Quarter
Chapter 5 Fourth Quarter
Chapter 6 Game
Chapter 7 Time-Out
Chapter 8 My Historically Black College and
University Experience Lessons Learned
Chapter 9 Overtime
Medical Glossary
Football Glossary
References
This book is dedicated to Team Hickson,
my wife, Meesha; my daughter, Leidra, and my son, Frankie.
Team Hickson
has been unselfishly dedicated and passionate in their support of me living with multiple sclerosis as well as writing this book. The team lives multiple sclerosis with me, and I would not be still standing without them.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to acknowledge that my strong faith in God, participation in multiple sclerosis clinical trials, and the love and support of family and friends have made it possible for me to live and write my story. My life is an illustration of how faith in God and medical science together can yield a positive outcome for which I continue to be grateful. As so many people have been supportive and encouraged me to write this book, I am reluctant to begin naming individuals, fearing that I might omit one inspiring, worthy-to-be-recognized person. For those of you who have assisted me in any way to write this book, I am deeply appreciative and grateful.
However, I will name some individuals who worked tirelessly with me from the beginning throughout the process. My wife, Meesha; daughter, Leidra; and son, Frankie; encouraged me to write the book and provided me support from start to finish by reading my drafts and helping me remember details. Leidra suggested the title. My sister, Nina, provided me legal advice when I was considering hiring someone else to write the book and reviewed the publisher’s contract. My mother supervised the project and identified individuals who provided the necessary technical support for the transcription of my recording, typing, editing, and formatting. She introduced me to Ms. Lenda Hill, who read, edited, and made suggestions regarding the organization of the book. Mom also researched and selected the publisher.
I shall be forever grateful to my niece,
Shayla, for writing the narrative that motivated me to tell my story and to write this book.
FOREWORD
What most people don’t know about physicians is that we are continually taking exams throughout our career, and although I’m an MD and practicing resident, I found myself sitting in a chain soup-and-sandwich restaurant studying for yet another test. That day I was fighting every stray thought to attempt to stay vigilant in my task of obtaining a passing score, and then walks in a couple in their eighties. She has an oxygen tank that she is dragging behind her and a pulse oximeter on her finger to make sure she knows exactly when it’s time to place the buds in her nose for assistance in breathing. Behind her, even more deliberate in his actions, is her husband. He walks slow and focused with cane in hand, in an internal battle we will never know, as he struggles for each step. His hand shakes incessantly as he tries to put his drink on the table. His loving wife watches as he almost spills the entire cup, but she doesn’t move to help. They finally get seated and prepare to eat.
The couple laughs, talks, and bickers in a way that lets me know they’ve been together for longer than I’ve been alive. I watch him as he uses every effort to try to eat his soup and salad, with half of most bites falling back to the plate. By his movements, I can use an educated guess and say he suffers from Parkinson’s disease and under appropriate treatment that has led to this successful stage of functioning. I am trying very hard not to stare, but the wife catches me looking. I attempt a light smile, and she meets my smile with a similar one. After another fifteen minutes, he has a few pieces of food left that he just can’t seem to get with his spoon, as he not so delicately has a tug-of-war with his plate. He playfully throws his spoon down and says, Just forget it.
His wife giggles and says, Yeah it’s not even worth it.
As she goes about cleaning the table, and their adventure out for a little lunch comes to a close, I can’t help but think about my Uncle Frank.
Well technically he’s not my uncle. He’s my mom’s sister’s daughter’s husband. You can figure out the technicalities of that relationship. What I know is that I would do anything for him, and I love him as family blood and water. Even so, as I watched the movements of that man in the cafe, I couldn’t help but think, Will this be Uncle Frank?
The parallels were so similar. Will he be struggling to perform tasks that most of us do without giving it a second thought?
This man doesn’t appear to have the same disease, but the neuromuscular deficits are similar. Immediately, I am overcome with emotion because as a physician I know the medical manifestations and progression of Frank’s condition better than most.
He has a chronic illness called multiple sclerosis (MS); a demyelinating disease, it is an autoimmune disorder affecting the brain and the nervous system. The myelin sheath is like insulation for the nerves in your brain and spinal cord. It’s made of protein and other fatty substances. The myelin allows electrical impulses to pass fast and strong along the nerve cells. MS damages this protective coating. With some or all of the myelin gone, the electrical impulses slow way down. Someone with MS can have a range of neurological symptoms including loss of sensation, motor impairment, muscle spasms, visual problems, trouble swallowing or speaking, bladder and bowel incontinence, and dozens of other ailments as these nerves fail to send the messages to their final destination. It can affect everything and anything in the body. There is no cure, but there are moderately effective treatments that unfortunately have their own set of potentially damaging side effects. Therefore, the reality is, I can only hope and pray that he has the opportunity to be in his eighties sitting with his wife having a nice lunch because for most people with multiple sclerosis, the expectations and outlook are bleak except for Frank, because he is a positive, optimistic person, and having MS has not changed him.
I am specializing in emergency medicine. I do my best to help people for a few hours and then send them to physicians with other medical specializations for a more permanent fix. The thought of being a neurologist in medical school was too frightening to even imagine for me. So I can’t give any specific expertise about MS, but I’ve talked to Frank a few times about his condition and about the tough choices he’s had to make about treatments and life and work. He’s made those choices with grace and confidence.