Writer with MS uses her voice to write memoir

By Amy Saunders

The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday May 21, 2013 6:00 AM

Lauri L. Wolf of Upper Arlington gathers her thoughts on a computer that responds to voice commands.

To move the cursor across her computer screen, Lauri L. Wolf leans back on the headrest of her motorized wheelchair and turns her head left or right.

Wake up, she says through a headset, launching the voice-recognition program to start speaking what she can no longer type.

As many as eight hours a day for the past two years, Wolf dictated her thoughts until they filled the 151 pages titled The BS of My MS a memoir she wrote without the use of her hands.

The 52-year-old Upper Arlington resident suffers a severe form of multiple sclerosis that has left her a quadriplegic, a prisoner in her own body.

Throughout her 18 years with the disease, she hasnt found any books that address topics more personal than scientific especially about her primary-progressive MS, which affects 15 percent of MS patients.

She decided to write one herself.

As a pharmacist, who maintains her license by taking continuing-education courses, Wolf felt a sense of obligation to share her knowledge of the neurological disease. In the self-published book, she openly discusses her physical and emotional challenges, writing about depression and an entire chapter called When the Levee Breaks: Loss of Bladder Control.

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Writer with MS uses her voice to write memoir