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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Christy Decker wants to eventually work at the Pentagon and then at an Air Force base.




Isle woman is
patient with MS

She lost her Air Force career because of
the ailment but still strives to serve her country

MS affecting more people than before


By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com

Christy Decker dreamed of an Air Force career that would give her an education and travel after graduating from Honokaa High School on the Big Island.

In January 1999, at age 19, she was on her way toward achieving those goals when her life took a turn.

She was at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, in April of that year training to work with aerospace ground equipment when she began having dizzy spells and headaches and, later, sensations that felt like electrical shocks.

She was taken by ambulance to the emergency room and seen by different doctors who could not diagnose her problem, she said.

Finally, after a battery of tests, a neurosurgeon told her in July that she had multiple sclerosis, a debilitating disease of the nervous system.

"I said, 'OK, what is it?' I had no clue what it was," she said. "He was very helpful, very kind in answering all my questions. He gave me lots of information.

"My next question was, 'Can I stay in the Air Force?'" she said, explaining she had planned to serve six years and re-enlist.

She was told, however, that she could not remain in the service because she no longer was deployable.

A medical review board gave her medical retirement, and she left the base Sept. 28, 1999, returning to her parents' Waikoloa home on the Big Island to adjust to the disease and wait for medical insurance to kick in, she said.

She said she is "very blessed" to have military medical insurance. "I think God was looking out for me there."

She pays only $9 of the $889-per-month cost for Avonex, a drug she takes once a week, she said.

Decker, now 22, said she went back to work as a dishwasher for a grocery store and deli where she was employed before joining the Air Force.

"I didn't move to Honolulu until August (2000) because I had to wait for insurance to even out and for me to get used to the medicine."

She enrolled at Hawaii Pacific University through the Department of Veterans Affair's vocational rehabilitation program and is working toward a degree in communications focusing on speech.

She said the VA is paying for tuition, books and supplies and provided her with a laptop computer for note-taking and homework because she cannot write for a long period of time.

Adopted from Korea by Robert and Teresa Decker, the retired airman first class said she does not know why she got multiple sclerosis. "I guess I just got 'lucky' and got selected."

She used to run four miles in half an hour, she said. Now she relies on a cane at times and takes her wheelchair for shopping or long distances to conserve her energy. She walks or takes the bus.

"There are definite limitations, but I guess I'm not the worst-case scenario," she said.

She lives alone in an apartment near HPU and receives some VA compensation and financial help from her parents. "I don't have that much extra money ... but I'm survivable, not suffering in any way."

The former runner cannot join in the MS Walk April 6 but is helping with the event.

She attends a monthly MS support group and spends a lot of time on the computer chatting with other MS patients, she said. She has new dreams now: to work eventually at the Pentagon and then to get a civilian job at an Air Force base. "I miss the Air Force base environment," she said. "That's the closest I can give back without being on active duty."

Lyn Moku, manager of the Hawaii Division of the National MS Society, said, "When I look at Christy and see this young woman who was so committed to serving her country and still to this day maintains the attitude of service, it's really touching. She is a real special young woman."


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Experts say MS affecting
more people than before


By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com

Multiple sclerosis appears to be affecting people at younger and older ages than in the past, said Lyn Moku, manager of the Hawaii Division of the National Sclerosis Society.

She said 600 islanders are known to have the disease, but the national office estimates 700 to 750 people may be affected.

"I think the missing element is the military ... and people who visit Hawaii and decide to stay and maybe never hook up with us," she said.

"We have a lot of newly diagnosed people coming into the association," she said, including some 14- and 15-year-olds. "It is very unusual to have children that young."

Also, at least five or six women in their 60s contacted the society last year after they were diagnosed with MS, she said. "That's unusual also. We say the prime of life for the disease is between 20 and 40."

Perhaps more people are being detected with the disease because of better equipment, more scientific information and people going to doctors earlier, she said.

Money raised through pledges for the annual MS Walk on April 6 will be used in Hawaii for programs and services to MS patients.

About 1,000 participants are expected to join the 3-mile walk through Ala Moana Beach Park and Magic Island. It will start at 7:30 a.m. at the McCoy Pavilion, Ala Moana Beach Park. Registration begins at 6:30 a.m.

Sher Satterfield, MS Walk team co-chairwoman and Xerox Hawaii employee, said she was diagnosed with the disease in March 2000, but "with the support of my ohana, both at work and the MS Society, I am still able to work and start my own business."

Melanie Horikami, vice president of Information Systems of Finance Factors Ltd., is MS Walk chairwoman. To register for the walk, call 532-0811. For more information about the MS Society or the disease, call 800-FIGHT-MS or e-mail hih@nmss.org.



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