Facing the Cognitive Challenges of Multiple Sclerosis

by Jeffrey N. Gingold

160 pages

Available for $19.95 at and published by Demos Medical Publishing, www.demosmedpub.com  

Available for $17.49 at Amazon. (See link below)

20% of all profit to be donated to the National MS Society, Wisconsin Chapter

"2006 Book of the Year Award" by the American Journal of Nursing

Reviewed by LizOP
MSWorld Book Reviewer



Right up front, I will tell you this is one of the best books I have read in some time. The writing is smooth making his experiences visual so the reader can share in his private, cognitive struggles. When he was lost driving in his own neighborhood, I felt I was right there sweating emotionally with him.

One evening he looked at his wife, Terri, and did not know who she was. "The most difficult thing was deciding whether to tell her or not," Jeffrey told me. But his wife has been right by his side through it all. He said, chuckling, "She spends all day with 4- and 5-year olds and comes home to me!" An excerpt where he tells his wife of this incident, gives a glimpse of his struggles and ability to write it beautifully:

"Something MS-bizarre happened, and this time it included you," I said.

"What did I do?" she said.

"Nothing, nothing at all," I quickly answered, "and you wouldn't necessarily have ever noticed anything." She joined me at the kitchen table. As I glanced out of the window to collect my thoughts, Terri waited with the patience of a kindergarten teacher. As I turned toward her, I noticed that she had laid both of her hands flat on the table, as if she was bracing for impact. Pausing for verbal running room, I began to describe the couch incident.

What do you mean you didn't recognize me?" she said. "How did I look different?"

"The longer that I stared at you, the more your facial features seemed changed."

She appeared to be uncomfortable. She pushed her hardwood chair slightly away from the table and sat up straight... "Dr. Matthias said this is another type of delay in the processing of recollection, similar to the driving incident," I said, "except it happens with recognizing people, too.

". . . sometimes everything is so confusing that I question what I'm doing. It's not as if I don't know what is supposed to happen, but when there's a piece suddenly missing, everything seems out-of-place."

He told me the best compliment he could ever get was from an MS Neurologist. He told Jeffrey that after he read the book he reworked his way of testing newly diagnosed or suspected MS patients.

The cover really grabbed my eye as the person stands inside a missing piece of a large puzzle. Much like his comment above about a piece suddenly missing.

Jeffrey fights his MS by using Avonex.

"When I pounded the empty syringe into the red sharps container, there was more than just relief at completing the shot. It was a push back against the disease. I was doing something about my MS, not simply waiting for it to steal the feeling in my limbs and obscure my thoughts," he wrote.

Rather than quote the entire book, I encourage you to buy this book. It is a good read, especially if you suspect or know you have cognitive issues. Maybe yours have been mostly small things like walking to the kitchen and forgetting why you went there or forgetting what you were talking about in the middle of a sentence.

This book helped me understand what could happen, how I could cope with it and certainly that I was not alone in the anguish. I think it will help anyone with MS, their spouses, friends and physicians.



About the author:

This is Jeffrey N. Gingold's first book but he is an avid writer. I hope to see more of his writing in the near future. Having to step down from his demanding work as a litigation attorney was difficult but his profession had prepared him for the hard work that MS presents to his life. As a result of learning to cope with his cognitive issues due to MS, he has become an advocate regarding cognitive disability and has been a federal and state volunteer lobbyist.

He helped procure funding for an MS early diagnosis program for indigent women in Wisconsin. Jeffrey was recipient of the NMSS Wisconsin Chapter's 2003 Outstanding Volunteer Award, was inducted into the MS Hall of Fame at the 2006 NMSS Leadership Conference in Orlando, and has work published in MS publications, as he continues to work as a freelance writer.


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