Lesli Wood has had her hand in the Seattle music scene
since 1997. She leads the four-piece known as Ms. Led and
performs in the melancholy and low-key Saeta with her good
friend Matt Menovcik and cellist Bob Smolenski. Where
Saeta will calm and ease you, Ms. Led wants things “to be
like a mini-revolution every time we play,” says Wood. She
also performs with Menovcik in an accordion and guitar
two-piece known as Roxy & Clark, attends law school at the
University of Washington and works at the Public
Defender’s office. One can see how busy Lesli Wood is and
how getting Multiple Sclerosis out of the blue could
seriously fuck up her life.
“I have a lot of issues with MS,” says Wood. “The fact
that I have it is my first one.” In January, Wood noticed
numbness in her hands and went to the doctor. By that
Sunday, she could barely walk or roll over in bed; it was
like her whole body was asleep. The following day her MRI
revealed white spots spread over her brain, indicating
lesions: patches of neurons stripped of their myelin, a
fatty protein. Neurons, billions of them, communicate
signals within the central nervous system, as well as the
rest of the body, and, when stripped of their myelin
(which insulates neurons and is responsible for increasing
the speed of nerve signals), the neurons cannot function
efficiently and may be damaged. Symptoms of MS vary from
person to person, but may include fatigue, vision and
memory problems, dizziness, slurred speech, bladder
dysfunction, and difficulty walking.
The week Wood was diagnosed, Roxy & Clark had a show at
Seattle’s Green Room. “It was a big deal for me to do this
show,” says Wood. She still hadn’t come to terms with MS.
“I’m thinking, ‘What does MS stand for? I didn’t even
know. MS to me at the time was like a foundation. People
do walks for MS. People do fundraising for MS. MS wasn’t
something that I would have.”
But she did have it, and she endured three-day steroid
treatments to fight the symptoms. “I was so drugged up. It
was over the top. I would stand up and I could feel the
steroids whoosh through my body…. All you do is sit around
and think about how your life is going to change because
you have MS and you can’t do all this shit, and you’re
fucked up on steroids. Are you ever gonna get your hands
back? Are you ever gonna play music again? How are you
gonna tell people? I couldn’t even fucking play guitar.”
She couldn’t play guitar because she had one of four
types of Multiple Sclerosis: relapse and remitting,
meaning new symptoms could appear and old ones worsen.
Slowly, she accepted she had MS and it would be with her
for life. Still, “I wasn’t going to change anything,” she
says. “I wasn’t going to cancel a single show.” She played
piano that night at the Green Room. Five songs. At the end
her hands had locked up; she couldn’t walk down stairs
without help. She also pulled off a huge show for Saeta
(playing with Low) during that time, as well. “Biggest
show of our career,” she says.
“I don’t think I’ve seen her encounter anything that
she couldn’t handle,” Menovcik says. Drummer Stephanie
Hasselman says Lesli “sees a sense of urgency more than
ever to get out there and play and tour and see and do
things with the band.” The only real difference now for
Ms. Led, Menovcik says, is that at times, the band may
have to carry more of the weight if Wood encounters
MS-related difficulties. Guitarist Peg Wood has learned
many of Lesli’s guitar lines in case Lesli has to resort
to just singing for the night because her hands won’t
allow her to play guitar. Lesli Wood has been told she
can’t do a lot of things, but her drive (and medicine)
still allow her to play guitar and piano, hold things, and
type notes during class. As long as she can do that,
she’ll keep doing what she’s been doing her whole life:
playing music.
“What,” she says, “I just have to sit in my home
waiting to be in a wheelchair one day? Fuck it, I can do
whatever I want. Music is what I want to do.”
Ms. Led’s new album will be out this summer. Thanks to
mult-sclerosis.org for additional information.
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