Hi, I’m Anita Gerhard. I retired early in 2006 due to disability from Multiple Sclerosis.

A life-changing improvement of my vision and hearing problems could be corrected with the appropriate glasses and hearing aids for each ear.

With aging ( almost 71) and MS, I have trouble seeing and hearing most of what is going on around me. I’m very grateful that my legs are working but the vision/hearing problems have become a safety issue (hearing/seeing cars, traffic signals, street signs.)

My hands are a mess. Right now I’m relearning / rewiring how to do things like using kitchen knives without cutting myself and how to use pens/pencils to make letters.. I have one more OT session covered by insurance. even though I’m already seeing some improvement . I’m in an intensive outpatient rehabilitation focused on a research-based program for reclaiming manual dexterity which has shown very good results.

I was telling my OT therapist about my Asian Calligraphy teacher Kaz. How he would walk around the room when we were practicing and asking “Are you smiling? If you aren’t smiling put down your brush until your smile comes back “ She was taking copious notes and is using his phrases to help me keep a good mindset for relearning what I originally learned in first grade.

The picture at the top with a partial “enso” and the word “together” is by Kaz. A reminder on mindset and how “together “ will help us during challenging times.

It’s ironic that some of the children’s activity books I have in the works had stories that kids enjoy while learning fine motor skills like cutting out stickers with scissors.

Two case managers and I have spent months contacting charities who have funded these services in the past, but all are out of money.

My Medicare and Medicare Supplement program have paid for the initial evaluations but do not cover the cost of special glasses or hearing aids.

The Medicare Supplement has paid for initial rehabilitation, but there are programs and assistive devices they will not pay for.

Money raised by this GoFundMe will go to my personal bank account and will be used to purchase the glasses and hearing aids I need. I’ve had the evaluations done, but there is some urgency to buying both before the prescriptions expire. If they expire, my insurance will not pay for the devices' repeat evaluation.

Your generosity will also make it possible to continue the OT to reclaim hand dexterity ( and my artwork) The hand rehabilitation program will progress over the next several months.

Prior to this relapse, I had been working on a series of children’s activity books and testing them with small groups of kids in the library system. One of the librarians has been working with me to enable libraries to purchase them for their collections. That is on hold now due to my current medical situation.

Samples of my art and activity books are below.

And a video https://youtu.be/qScdJOxo_QI

Comments from an earlier fundraiser addressing a different type of visual problems that can come with MS:

For those of you who have never met Anita, we are including a summary of part of her life prior to MS as well as some of our experiences and that of others to help give you sense of why we are so committed to making sure Anita gets the treatment she needs.

Even small amounts add up when we do this together, so please do not hesitate to contribute even if you are only in a position to give $5 or $10. If you can’t contribute money, sharing the Go Fund Me with friends, and any and all prayers are gratefully welcomed and a big help.

Anita was diagnosed with MS in 2006. In retrospect, like many people, she had most likely been suffering from MS for a number of years. Prior to her diagnosis, she was a greatly respected and beloved child and adolescent psychiatrist. She ran training programs in academic medicine as well as teaching and seeing patients. She received numerous awards for her teaching and was asked to be a commencement speaker. She was known for doing considerable pro bono work, and not dropping patients when their insurance ran out.

Prior to her official diagnosis, she became more and more fatigued and spent several years trying many different ways of still working in her profession. In August of 2006, a balance problem quickly progressed to not being able to walk. And intermittent blurred vision became persistent blurred and double vision. Several doctors told her to be prepared to go into a nursing home within 6 months to a year.

Anita is not someone who believes pronouncements like that. Within a year she was walking and only had a small visual defect. However, it was clear to her that, even in between relapses, she didn’t have the stamina or the ability to keep a consistent schedule that would be needed to continue to practice medicine. So regretfully, she stopped practicing medicine.

As she was able, she started learning art again (examples below) and slowly began working on some children’s books, as well as studying calligraphy. When she had the stamina, she participated in committees of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, including making visits to congressional representatives along with other people living with MS (see pic below), all telling their stories with the hope that in the future, other people would not have to go through so many of the hardships that many people with MS have faced.

When Anita stopped working as a physician she did not lose her ability to heal, inspire and comfort others. Through her art, she has invited conversations with children, in particular, about what is possible for them to achieve and to hope for in their lives.

For so many of us, Anita's own art and her vision of what life can be is a catalyst --or a gentle nudge or a source of hope. Illness has never diminished Anita's ability to help others and we cherish her for that.

As Anita's friends, we are constantly in the presence of Grace and healing and Ohana. We are drawn together as a spiritual family and are enriched by being with Anita. We always leave feeling safe and cared for and wiser and more awake. Anita helps us to feel more of ourselves -- never less.

Here are more words from a friend of Anita's when she lived in Hawaii:

(Gavin Harrison was a beloved friend and teacher of Anita`s for twenty years. He passed away suddenly in October 2018. These are excerpts of a piece for a fundraiser he wrote in 2007, a few months after Anita was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and gave up practicing as a physician. A picture of them after a meditation retreat is below).

"Anita is one of those beautiful souls with a healing presence no matter where she is, her medical condition, or what she is doing in the world.

It is a mistake to think that it is a terrible thing that she is no longer "practicing medicine" or she is a "sad case" because she has "lost" so much. Fortunately, healing has never been confined to boxes called "offices" or special licenses.

I witnessed this whenever we spent time together, but I will give only a couple of examples for the sake of brevity.

I remember so many times when we were watching sea turtles or night herons on the beach at Puako when a complete stranger, often a child, would come up and sit down next to Anita. Usually within minutes, she was being asked profound questions, "Why did my auntie have to die- she was such a good person? " Or "How can God let _______happen to children?". I was always in awe as I watched these conversations unfold.

One evening I was with her in the ER when she was having terrible pain from a kidney stone. I don`t remember how the conversation started, but before the pain meds from the IV kicked in, the IV nurse was tearfully talking about challenges with her child who had been diagnosed with autism. Anita was barely conscious at this point, but just the right words were coming through her to ease the mother`s suffering.

It never mattered if she was listening to the cashier at the grocers, a post office clerk, or a visiting nurse giving her a home IV treatment.

She is like a "Monk in the World" with her loving presence. "