AustLit

'When I was Nine, my mother suffered an exacerbation of a disease we did not know she had. Part of the protective sheath of myelin insulating the axons of the neurons in her central nervous system broke down en masse, causing a lesion in the right hemisphere of her brain - an area responsible for, among other things, motor control in the left side of her body. She had been under attack from her own immune system for an unknowable period of time, the myelin having been incorrectly identified as a potentially dangerous foreign body. Connections warped, fizzled and cracked as their insulation eroded. During a seminar, the left side of her body stopped working. Ever the professional, she finished teaching the class before being rushed to hospital.' (Publication abstract)