The phone rang. My doctor, Dr. Yee, called. My heart hit the ceiling. Today we must discuss the results of your MRI. What were the results?

Can you tell me over the phone? Please, Vincent, come in for your follow-up visit. Every visit is a follow-up visit! The one before the one, the one, after the one. The doctor did not have to say anything. Like the time Dr. Yee said, I must tell you something. Please sit down…
It is about your brother Robert…
Or, when my wife said…
We must talk. I have something imperative to discuss…

I just knew something terrible was about to confront me. I got that feeling again. You know that feeling. When you think you cannot hold your bowels.

I felt as though I was a spot of faded blood, on a busy, gray cement street, viciously crushed, stepped on, and ignored like a soul departing a dead body.

Doctor Yee told me the lesions on my brain have expanded in size and number. Now, what does this mean? I asked. We cannot say just yet. What does that mean? Who are you referring to when you say we?

Medical science does not have all the answers. We do not know. Give it time. Doctor, what time! Time for what? Time for my head to explode? Will I lose sight again? Will I have another exacerbation of Multiple Sclerosis? What can I do to prevent another attack?

Stay in good health. How! What can I do that I have not already done? Tell me doctor- what can I do? If you cannot do anything, why tell me? We must tell you these things. Why? I do not want to know! Mr. Tomeo, we will see you in three months. We will see what happens then.

Post Script: I have been in remission since 1998.