Bianca

called that at the time. For 23 years, Bianca did not have any symptoms. A couple of years later, Bianca recalled feeling weird, and her left leg dragging a little. Bianca’s brother, a pulmonologist, suggested that she see a neurologist. In 1993, after receiving an MRI, the neurologist diagnosed Bianca with MS at 41 years old. Bianca was on a drug trial of Linomide for several months where she took a pill every day. Weeks into the trial, she received a phone call telling her to stop the drug because there had been some previously healthy people who experienced cardiac episodes. Bianca found the phone call “a little scary.” Bianca felt disappointed because it was an easy drug to take, and it would have been great for her had it actually helped her with her MS. At that point, Bianca was not optimistic that anything would work due to her previous experience with heavy hitter medications that did not work for her. She was pretty resigned to this. Her motivation for participating was that her doctor was encouraging her to do it and she felt that she had nothing to lose.

Bianca has also participated in many volunteer cognition studies that include the pencil-and-paper tests, peg test, and other memory exams. Her motivation for volunteering for these studies was she would get a free intense mental workout that was sort of fun. She is interested in those mental exams and memory tests because a layperson can sort of comprehend what’s going on. Bianca wishes that researchers would give her the results of her tests because she is interested in learning more about the “mental stuff” and her progression over time.