Navy Veteran Bill Metzger shares his journey with multiple sclerosis. <\/p>\n
There are many wonderful things in this world, and I\u2019ve spent much of my life trying to see them. I enlisted in the Navy my senior year of high school, starting my tour in September 1964. I wanted to experience more than my small town of Mechanicsburg, Penn., could offer and the Navy was the best way out. I served for three years with a two-year tour in Guam. Following my military service, I worked in journalism and photography.<\/p>\n
I started getting the symptoms of MS in 1978 and was diagnosed in 1983, though that diagnosis never changed my desire and ability to see and explore. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I retired in 2021 and rode freight trains all over the country for five years, escorting heavy, expensive and fragile machinery to make sure it arrived quickly and in one piece.<\/p>\n
As my MS progressed, I needed a career change and settled on creating maps and brochures as contributing illustrator for Trains and Classic Trains magazines, where I made historic and contemporary railroad maps of subjects worldwide.<\/p>\n
When I was diagnosed with MS, I decided to become a stronger, fitter person; I quit smoking and started exercising. I ran when I was traveling. When running became unsafe, my feet stumbling too often, I took up swimming.<\/p>\n
After an ear infection, I took up biking. Every year I planned and completed a two-week bike trip with hundreds of small trips in-between. And when I wasn\u2019t biking, I was thinking about biking. I figure I did about 30,000 miles on two wheelers, including one that lasted six weeks and 2,000 miles.<\/p>\n
My MS hasn\u2019t been a walk in the park. As my disease progressed, I found that handling a bike became increasingly difficult. That was in 1984, the year I also had a cardiac bypass.<\/p>\n
Two of my neighbors who are occupational therapists introduced me to the handcycle. Once I rode it on our local trail, the Great Allegheny Passage, I was passing people. My handcycle wasn\u2019t a step down, it was a step up to a new, incredible biking experience.<\/p>\n
My wife and I have done several tours in the US and Canada. I keep a logbook and have put over 31,000 miles on the bike.<\/p>\n
Though I\u2019ve had MS for over 60 years, it\u2019s never prevented me from living my best life. I\u2019ve had to adapt at times, going from using a cane to forearm crutches and, for the last 12 years a wheelchair, but don\u2019t we all adapt as life changes us?<\/p>\n
Now we live in a totally accessible house, and I\u2019ve traveled to thousands of places and met amazing people. I am a founding board member of the Montour Trail Council, which has built 40+ miles of trail around Pittsburgh. I\u2019m also a founding board member of the\u00a0 Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy. We live along the trail and I\u2019ve written a book about it, \u201cThe Great Allegheny Passage Companion.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been married for 26 years to Pam (pictured above), an amazing woman who shares my love of biking and my adventurous spirit. I have an amazing VA neurologist, Dr. Islam Zaydan at Pittsburgh VA,<\/a> who is my personal superhero. He\u2019s helped keep me healthy and safe. And I\u2019ve enjoyed excellent general health care through VA.<\/p>\n As a biking enthusiast and adventurer, I\u2019ve learned there are good rides and there are better rides. There\u2019s no such thing as a bad ride. You learn to deal with whatever comes along and you move forward. If it rains, you get wet\u2026 so what. Just enjoy the journey. That\u2019s life.<\/p>\n As songwriter John Hartford wrote, \u201cI\u2019m still here. How \u2018bout that.\u201d<\/p>\n
![<\/a>Navy Veteran Bill Metzger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nI retired in 2021 and rode freight trains all over the country for five years, escorting heavy, expensive and fragile machinery to make sure it arrived quickly and in one piece.<\/p>\nAs my MS progressed, I needed a career change and settled on creating maps and brochures as contributing illustrator for Trains and Classic Trains magazines, where I made historic and contemporary railroad maps of subjects worldwide.<\/p>\nWhen I was diagnosed with MS, I decided to become a stronger, fitter person; I quit smoking and started exercising. I ran when I was traveling. When running became unsafe, my feet stumbling too often, I took up swimming.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen I wasn\u2019t biking, I was thinking about biking.\u201d<\/h2>\nAfter an ear infection, I took up biking. Every year I planned and completed a two-week bike trip with hundreds of small trips in-between. And when I wasn\u2019t biking, I was thinking about biking. I figure I did about 30,000 miles on two wheelers, including one that lasted six weeks and 2,000 miles.<\/p>\nMy MS hasn\u2019t been a walk in the park. As my disease progressed, I found that handling a bike became increasingly difficult. That was in 1984, the year I also had a cardiac bypass.<\/p>\nTwo of my neighbors who are occupational therapists introduced me to the handcycle. Once I rode it on our local trail, the Great Allegheny Passage, I was passing people. My handcycle wasn\u2019t a step down, it was a step up to a new, incredible biking experience.<\/p>\nMy wife and I have done several tours in the US and Canada. I keep a logbook and have put over 31,000 miles on the bike.<\/p>\n\u201cDon\u2019t we all adapt as life changes us?\u201d<\/h2>\nThough I\u2019ve had MS for over 60 years, it\u2019s never prevented me from living my best life. I\u2019ve had to adapt at times, going from using a cane to forearm crutches and, for the last 12 years a wheelchair, but don\u2019t we all adapt as life changes us?<\/p>\nNow we live in a totally accessible house, and I\u2019ve traveled to thousands of places and met amazing people. I am a founding board member of the Montour Trail Council, which has built 40+ miles of trail around Pittsburgh. I\u2019m also a founding board member of the\u00a0 Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy. We live along the trail and I\u2019ve written a book about it, \u201cThe Great Allegheny Passage Companion.\u201d<\/p>\nI\u2019ve been married for 26 years to Pam (pictured above), an amazing woman who shares my love of biking and my adventurous spirit. I have an amazing VA neurologist, Dr. Islam Zaydan at Pittsburgh VA,<\/a> who is my personal superhero. He\u2019s helped keep me healthy and safe. And I\u2019ve enjoyed excellent general health care through VA.<\/p>\nAs a biking enthusiast and adventurer, I\u2019ve learned there are good rides and there are better rides. There\u2019s no such thing as a bad ride. You learn to deal with whatever comes along and you move forward. If it rains, you get wet\u2026 so what. Just enjoy the journey. That\u2019s life.<\/p>\nAs songwriter John Hartford wrote, \u201cI\u2019m still here. How \u2018bout that.\u201d<\/p>\nTo learn more about MS, visit VA\u2019s MS Centers of Excellence<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Navy Veteran Bill Metzger shares his journey with multiple sclerosis. There are many wonderful things in this world, and I\u2019ve spent much of my life trying to see them. I enlisted in the Navy my senior year of high school, starting my tour in September 1964. I wanted to experience more than my small town […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":61974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[193,5,386],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-posts","category-health","category-multiple-sclerosis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61972"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61975,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61972\/revisions\/61975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/11\/Bill-in-motion_r1.jpg\"){kind=link}