Space
The dating game
by Emily Wojcik
MS brings some special
considerations when
it comes to dating, but
that doesn’t mean MS
defines you.
Claire Lee Gordy, a PhD stu- dent in immunology at Duke
University in Durham, N.C.,
didn’t date much after she was
first diagnosed with MS in 2000.
“I’ve always been really shy,
and I was busy with school. MS
played into it, too—I always
worried that I would end up
being a burden to someone,”
she said. “I know I might wake
up tomorrow and my life might
be different, and I can deal with
that. But it’s a lot to ask of some-
one else.”
As a result, Gordy wasn’t
thinking about relation-
ships when she met
Carlos, a postdoctoral
fellow who arrived
at Duke in 2008. “A
mutual friend brought
him to happy hour at
a local wine bar. He
may have known that
she was trying to do a
little matchmaking, but
I had no idea,” Gordy
said. “We realized
pretty quickly that we
had a lot in common,
but we didn’t start dat-
ing until two months
later, on New Year’s Eve
of 2009.”
Gordy soon found
herself answering
familiar questions. “I’m
very open about my
MS and talk about the
Challenge Walk MS all
the time. I guess I just
assume that everyone
knows,” she laughed.
“But a few days into
dating, he mentioned
that he noticed I
seemed really tired. And
IllustratIon By JaCoB thomas
