MS A Life Modifying Condition

MS is a degenerative neurological disease of the central nervous system (brain and Spinal cord) which can cause a very wide array of symptoms. Some of these include: numbness, weakness, loss of muscle coordination, pain and chronic fatigue as well as problems with vision, cognition, speech and bodily functions (bladder and bowel control). The progress, severity and specific symptoms in MS are unpredictable and each person given the diagnosis of this infuriating disease will travel down a different path with their own personal collection of symptoms to cope with on a daily basis.

So if you are reading this and you don’t have MS just take a few minutes to digest this information.

Ok so now you might be thinking ‘Shit that is scary stuff! How can anyone cope with all that fear and uncertainty?

Now think about dealing with that every day.

Multiple Sclerosis comes under the term ‘Long Term Conditions’ however I would also call it a life modifying condition as once you have MS, as the disease progresses you have to learn to modify and adapt to the challenges of the various symptoms.

The facts given to you as a person with MS are that it is degenerative, you will have periods in time when you will experience a wide variety of symptoms and you may or may not recover all the ability you had prior to a relapse ( I should point out I have RRMS). It’s a great pile of uncertainty and fear to mentally cope with.

A huge mind F**K!

Now everyone deals with health difficulties and illness in different ways and all I can tell you is how I put all this into some kind of perspective so that I can carry on with my life.

BUT……. what I can say is that my life is different. I am different. MS has changed me and I have had come to terms with that. I now modify my life to function with MS.

I can admit I have cried, been very low, been angry and scared and also fearful of the future and how I will cope with increasing symptoms and their effects. I have also grieved for the life I wanted to have before MS, but I am a resilient individual and I've found my inner strength.

Now three years with MS I have accepted who I am and the fact I will spend the rest of my time on this earth with MS so I’m not going to fight it... but I still need to manage it.

I have learned to pace myself and know that when I do push myself (e.g. a weekend away full of activities) I will pay for it the next day but I accept that and adjust my life accordingly.

Housework needs to be done in shorter bursts (gone are the days of starting at the bedrooms and working my way down through the house) and now I plan ahead. It’s something that still makes me occasionally angry even after three years but as I have mentioned before I am a bit of a stubborn old goat and getting on and doing things is a fundamental part of my personality.

Before MS arrived in my life, I was never going to climb Mount Everest or run a marathon so I’m not considering that now. I’m just living an ordinary life and find that MS has actually made me really appreciate my family, my lovely fella, and  friends and the support they all give me.