Life with MS

Things will never be the same. I know this. After five years, you’d think I’d be more at peace with my diagnosis but it’s hard living with this disease. Being told you suffer from a condition that has no cure and is unpredictable, will change your life as you know it.  There are very few certainties to be found anywhere in any aspect of this disease.

With an MS diagnosis also comes loss. After a bad day, I find myself feeling sorry for myself and grieving the life I once had. On these days it is not hard to work myself up into a frenzy of sobs and tears. How do I incorporate the reality of the disease into my life without letting it dominate my life? Does MS change who I am? Can I be me with MS?

Acceptance is an evolving, continuing, and often repetitive process. Acceptance is not an event or a task that once achieved is completed. There aren’t any set steps to take to get from diagnosis to acceptance. I often find myself forgetting this.

There is a whole world and a whole life beyond multiple sclerosis. We did not choose to have MS, we didn’t do anything wrong to get MS, MS just happened. Now all I need to do is accept it.