REI Wealth Monthly Issue 07 | Page 15

INTERVIEW WITH BEN LEYBOVICH NOLAND ARARACAP Can you describe for us what these developments were? Yes – do you want the short version, or the long? How about medium? Well, I had just begun working on my Master Degree, when one day I suddenly felt some tingling sensation in my legs. I didn’t pay much attention to it at first, but the sensation became more pronounced and I started experiencing vertigo as well. Within a few days, I started noticing a loss of coordination in my right arm. I knew something was seriously wrong when a loaded fork would miss my mouth and I would smear food on my cheek. I saw a doctor who promptly ordered an MRI. Two days later I was due for a follow-up visit, but around 9:00 P.M. that night all hell broke loose inside my body. My legs were buzzing, my head started spinning, and my tongue started to curl uncontrollably inside my mouth. Needless to say, I was seriously scared. I jumped into the car and drove to the hospital like a bat out of hell. By the time I got to the emergency room, my speech was so slurred that I could barely tell them who I was, the right side of my face was numb, and I had barely the coordination to put my scribbles on a few sheets of paper. Noland, to make the long story short, I was told that the MRI images were consistent with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which is an auto-immune disease that causes deterioration of the protective fatty tissue around