A journey with MS...

I have spent the last 9 months learning how to cope with a chronic illness....Multiple Sclerosis. I have decided that in order to share with others that I am going to start blogging about it. I have blogged a little bit about it, but not enough. I have always believed that being able to write about things is healthy, but then I get too busy and don't make time to do it....that stops now :)
To be on the safe side, I will state this disclosure...
I want to let anyone reading this know that I have no medical background and am only speaking from my own personal experiences and therefore anything I write cannot be claimed as fact.
Here we go...
When I was officially diagnosed on 7/22/08 with Multiple Sclerosis, there were so many emotions that ran through my body that I almost fell over. The first two that hit me were relief and fear. I was relieved that I wasn't dying, but was in fear of what was going to happen to me and my children. Then shock set in....and the question, is this real?! One would think that 3 emotions would be enough for anyone to handle, but this kind of diagnosis actually floods any number of emotions through you. Next was sadness and the ultimate question, why me?! Next came anger....and that one is ugly!
As I look back, I was basically numb for several months until I was able to start dealing with all of the emotions that flooded my system. I would just get up and go to work, get through the day and come home. When I got home, I would just zone out in games on the computer, not really dealing with anything. I think this is a natural human response when one is flooded with emotions. We have a tendency to just shut down at first. And then at some point something clicks (whatever the trigger may be) and we turn back on the emotion switch and actually start dealing with them. For me personally, I have been through a lot of traumatic situations and events in my young life (as many call it....and rightfully so since I'm only 28) and these events have helped me to know how to quickly move past the emotions and just get down to business. The first business to address was whether to start treatment right away or not. I made the decision to start medication right away because in general starting treatment early was necessary to hopefully reduce exacerbations (also called attacks) and to prevent further damage to my CNS (Central Nervous System). There are a bunch of medications out there for MS so I had to sit down and really look at them and talk to others about them to decide which one was best for me. Since MS is so very different for each person that has it, each person with it will have to do their own research and some may even decide medication isn't right for them at that moment. However, there is a lot of information out there to support the idea that starting treatment early gives you the best possible outcome to prevent or delay the disabling impact of the disease.
I also began learning everything I possibly could about MS because I feel that education is very important so that you know what you are dealing with. Actually it was funny, I went to the local library and probably brought home about 20 books about MS. Once I got the books home, I started going through them and realized that many of them were outdated and a few were too technical and boring. I ended up returning most of them to the library and only keeping 2 to read. The two that I read were "Multiple Sclerosis: The Ultimate User-Friendly Guide (2nd Edition)" from The Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center Guild and "Multiple Sclerosis" New Hope and Practical Advice for people with MS and their families" by Louis J Rosner, M.D. and Shelley Ross. I have also picked up another book called "Multiple Sclerosis for Dummies" that has been extremely helpful. In my opinion, these are probably the best books to start with for anyone with MS and family/friends that are supporting someone with MS.

For now, I will end this blog session.

Until next time.....stay positive! :)

~Hope~