Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff

While MS controls a part of my life. MS ISN'T my life. There's a whole lot more to living than MS. I try to keep it all in perspective. It's actually really easy for me to forget that I even HAVE MS. Other than making sure I take my pills four times a day and my shots 3 times a week, unless I'm having a "symptom" day, each day is like another. Adapting to the mobility changes and other issues that MS brought occurred over time. So, while getting up and around tends to be slower, reaching for the cane when it's needed is automatic, not requiring active thought. With the realization that I didn't have to focus on limitations came more change. My focus was turned outward. This once again allowed me to focus on the important things in life and LIVING, instead of the internal fears that were whispering. It also helps keep the "pity parties" at bay. Like everyone else I worry about family, friends, my job, building my business, bills. The day to day hum drum of getting through each day. Finding time and there never being enough. Visiting with friends. ALWAYS searching for more quality time with my husband. Yet, these are the worries I WANT to have. One thing about MS, it sure changes "worrying" and really brings home the saying, "Don't sweat the small stuff".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, sure glad you can keep a positive outlook with this thing because I sure can't.
It's really hard to see anything at all positive in having this despicable disease which has swallowed my life & spit it out as a mere wraith of what it once was. My mobility was and is everything to me. as my passion is gardening & I live in the country where all the roads have no sidewalks, up on a hill with a long gravel driveway which is no longer accessible to me as I stumble in the gravel and I can't walk downhill without falling (and no, a walker doesn't work in the gravel)

I've just recently been diagnosed with MS at the age of 62 with the cute comment by the diagnosing neurologist that he pretty much thought I had MS when he first saw me over two years ago and that he shoud have sent me for a brain scan then but well he just didn't bother to. That was two years ago when I didn't need a cane & would have started physio then that I'm doing now struggling to maintain any ability to walk. Three years ago I asked my GP if I had MS and she told me "no you don't.

After being treated like this by my medical providers I'm feeling pretty depressed - like I wasn't worth bothering about and they really didn't care at all about my life. With jerks like that around me I don't need enemies

Kimberly said...

Hang in there. I went through several neurologists before I found one that I could communicate with and who LISTENED and cared. It's a rough journey. One not for the faint of heart.