Josh Fields/Arizona Daily Wildcat Nicole Quackenbush instructs students during her Business Writing class at the Center for Computing and Information Technology. Quackenbush is a doctoral student and still finds time to teach.

She refuses to let a serious medical diagnosis dampen her spirit - or her ambitions.

A little more than a month ago, Nicole Quackenbush, a doctoral student in English and instructor, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system.

The news came as quite a shock.

"I didn't have an awareness or understanding of the disease," she said. "I was really afraid that I wouldn't be able to do the things I had been doing and the things I wanted to do."

Quackenbush is a third-year graduate student in the department of English, where she specializes in rhetoric, composition and the teaching of English.

She is also an instructor in the department and teaches two sections of English 307, Business Writing.

Her initial fears have subsided somewhat as she has been educating herself about MS in the weeks since the diagnosis, Quackenbush said.

Although there is no cure, she said she has no reason to believe her condition is a "death sentence."

In fact, she said, her doctors have given her a good prognosis, and that she can expect to lead a full life.

"I want to use my body as much as I can at this point," she said.

She began telling colleagues and students about her condition within a week of the diagnosis, she said.

Mark Savage, a creative writing senior who is taking Quackenbush's course in business writing, said part of the reason he loves the class so much is because Quackenbush brings her personal experiences to the classroom.

"She has been so open with her illness. It's made us feel comfortable, and it's made us feel like a part of her recovery," Savage said. "She uses (her illness) to bring the class together."

Quackenbush said she feels compelled to share her story with others.

"It's an opportunity to educate myself and increase awareness and understanding with others (about MS)," she said.

Teaching others, however, is nothing new for Quackenbush.

She said her mother read to her every night as a child, and this helped instill in her a deep appreciation for language and literature.

"I can't remember a time when books and writing weren't a huge part of my life," she said.

She began her teaching career as a writing center tutor while going to college at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, and she continued to teach while she worked on a master's in fiction writing at the UA, she said.

Although she temporarily pursued a career as a business writer in Chicago after graduating, she said something was missing.

"Every day I wished I were teaching," she said.

She realized what she really wanted to do was teach at the college level, so she returned to Tucson in the fall of 2003 to pursue her doctoral studies in the department of English, Quackenbush said.

"I really love my students," she said.

She makes every effort to get to know her students individually, as her writing classes are typically small, she said.

She also said she is able to strike a nice balance between being both a student and a teacher.

"I can apply a lot of what I learn in my doctoral program to my teaching," she said, referring to a course she is taking in rhetorical analysis.

Quackenbush said, after all, rhetoric and language have the power to move an audience.

Her students can attest to that fact.

"I speak for the entire class when I say she is amazing," Savage said, adding that Quackenbush maintains a level of respect in the classroom that encourages students to do their best work.

Lynne Duggins, a fine arts senior, shares the sentiment.

"Most teachers do the bare minimum, but she goes above and beyond," Duggins said.

Quackenbush said she is optimistic about her future, choosing to focus on all the activities she is still able to pursue, and that researchers are working hard on new treatments and a possible cure for MS.

"I'm still going to get my degree, I'm still going to teach and I still want to have kids," she said.

Quackenbush said her type of MS is relatively mild and is known as relapsing-remitting, which means her symptoms vary in intensity.

Later this week Quackenbush said she will begin receiving interferon drug treatments, which entails giving herself an injection of the drug every other day.

She said this drug helps slow the progression of the disease and enables those who take it to remain as physically active as possible.

According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Web site, relapsing-remitting is the most common form of MS at the time of diagnosis, occurring in about 85 percent of patients.

Quackenbush said her own symptoms include trouble walking, losing her balance and numbness in her face.

Sometimes, she said, the symptoms are more severe while at other times they are "quiet," as they do not interfere with normal body functions like walking.

"With a lot of people, you can't even tell they have the disease," she said.

And she's not about to let the disease take control of her life or define who she is.

"Your life is a bunch of threads," she reflected. "MS is only one of my threads."

-Lisa Rich contributed to this report.