It is MS Awareness Week this week, and I have been pondering my contribution.
You probably already know the basics of what MS (Multiple Sclerosis) (if not have a read of this), but what is it like to have MS?
Having MS is a journey - us MSers (we are not MS sufferers by the way. - I do not suffer it, I just have it!) are all at different stages of the journey. Actually it is also different journeys - the final destination is different and we will all experience it differently, but I am probably already confusing you!
I am lucky - in the grand scheme of things I am only mildly impacted by my MS (as I was reminded by the nurse who gave me my second vaccination as she presumed I must be a keyworker as why else would I be getting it?). Your perspective gets distorted with MS though - I might look like a fit and healthy forty-something, but I am very conscious of what I have lost.
I have less fine motor control in my hands - I find things like buttons or opening packets fiddly, random bits of my body have patches of numbness, I can get fatigue (expected and unexpectedly), and occassionally my hands do unexpected things (dropping things or one memorable occassion where I involuntarilty squeezed hard on the front brake of my bicycle flipping me over the handlebars!). Perhaps more tough, at least to my own self esteem, is a noticeable degregation on control on some bodily functions.
But the symptoms of this condition are not the hard part. For me, the hardest part is having this ticking timebomb inside me. The feeling that, if I overdo it, or not get enough sleep, or not eat healthily, or get too stressed, I could cause a relapse that results in the permanently loss to a part of me. This last year has been nerveracking- not just due to Covid itself but the worry of my body's reaction if I did get infected.
Stretching out the journey analogy again - I also have no idea what my final destination is. The extremes of symptoms for this condition are not exactly joyful - I could maybe lose the ability to walk, or lose cognative functions or worse. Or I could maybe just stay as I am or perhaps just gradually get a little worse over the years. š¤· who knows.
Mostly I handle all this fine - I get on with my life enjoying each day grateful that I am mostly fit and healthy. But the nasty little inner voice is always there ready to catch me at a weak moment to remind me that I have Multiple Sclerosis and my luck may not hold.
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My kids are on the last few weeks of their challenge to run 8 marathons over 12 weeks to raise money for MS Trust: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/al-and-bee
You probably already know the basics of what MS (Multiple Sclerosis) (if not have a read of this), but what is it like to have MS?
Having MS is a journey - us MSers (we are not MS sufferers by the way. - I do not suffer it, I just have it!) are all at different stages of the journey. Actually it is also different journeys - the final destination is different and we will all experience it differently, but I am probably already confusing you!
I am lucky - in the grand scheme of things I am only mildly impacted by my MS (as I was reminded by the nurse who gave me my second vaccination as she presumed I must be a keyworker as why else would I be getting it?). Your perspective gets distorted with MS though - I might look like a fit and healthy forty-something, but I am very conscious of what I have lost.
I have less fine motor control in my hands - I find things like buttons or opening packets fiddly, random bits of my body have patches of numbness, I can get fatigue (expected and unexpectedly), and occassionally my hands do unexpected things (dropping things or one memorable occassion where I involuntarilty squeezed hard on the front brake of my bicycle flipping me over the handlebars!). Perhaps more tough, at least to my own self esteem, is a noticeable degregation on control on some bodily functions.
But the symptoms of this condition are not the hard part. For me, the hardest part is having this ticking timebomb inside me. The feeling that, if I overdo it, or not get enough sleep, or not eat healthily, or get too stressed, I could cause a relapse that results in the permanently loss to a part of me. This last year has been nerveracking- not just due to Covid itself but the worry of my body's reaction if I did get infected.
Stretching out the journey analogy again - I also have no idea what my final destination is. The extremes of symptoms for this condition are not exactly joyful - I could maybe lose the ability to walk, or lose cognative functions or worse. Or I could maybe just stay as I am or perhaps just gradually get a little worse over the years. š¤· who knows.
Mostly I handle all this fine - I get on with my life enjoying each day grateful that I am mostly fit and healthy. But the nasty little inner voice is always there ready to catch me at a weak moment to remind me that I have Multiple Sclerosis and my luck may not hold.
-----
My kids are on the last few weeks of their challenge to run 8 marathons over 12 weeks to raise money for MS Trust: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/al-and-bee