The pick fell to the floor. He retrieved it and tried to play. Again it fell out of his hand. "I'd drop the pick evry
time I went to strum, Clay recalls. I couldn't hold it with my two fingers, because I could not feel it."
This comes from Neurology Now
"I'm very active on stage, moving around a lot, dancing, having a good time, Clay says. But that night in the Seattle
Dome, I could only stand still. I was afraid if I took a step, I'd fall over."
Clay also had numbness,double vision,weakness on the right side of his body- and worsening symtoms. "I got home and the
facial spasms started from the top of my head to the bottom of my chin, and it lasted for eigt weeks, 24-7 clay recalls. I
rubbed my eyes so much I developed blisters on them. I couldn't see out of my right eye as the blisters grew. My wife finally
called a neurosurgeon and made an appointment. I said 'Why'? She said 'Because there's something wrong with you. This spasm
is going on in the middle of the night, and I'm concerned you may have a tumor."
It wasn't a tumor- it was ms. "I didn't know what ms was, Clay said. I thought it was worse than it was. Hearing the
words, 'You have ms, is like someone telling you, you have cancer. And worse the neurosurgeon who was neither a neurologist
nor an ms specialist, told him he'd be dead within eight years.
For all his accomplishments, though his music career was hardly a concern that day in Apirl, when he was diagnosed.
"My only negative reaction when I found out I had ms was that I might not be able to walk my daughter down the aisle,
says clay, who now has two young daughter's to inspire him. "Being able to do that is very important to me. I think
of that quite often, and that is my goal."
"i appreciate every show more than I used to, becuase I know it could all be taken away from me."
He still has weakness in his right leg but it's noticeable only to neurologists and only after extreme exercise and fatigue.
"That was the most stressful week of my life. There were tragedies in my family. My brother-in-law was killed in a violent
motorcycle accident." "At 26 years old, I felt like 50."
"I don't sweat the small stuff anymore. It takes a lot to rock my world."
"My right hand that could not hold a guitar pick, or a fishing rod and reel, got stronger then my left hand- and I'm
left handed! Clay says smiling. I smiled a long time after that. They say you can't regain strength and yet I did".
