This week is MS Awareness week. I have been playing my small part re-posting articles on Facebook and Twitter so that more people will have awareness.
What I didn't realise, until I was sorting through a box of old appointment diaries is that earlier this week I 'celebrated' 10 years since my MS diagnosis (on Tuesday). A whole decade. It really doesn't seem that long. I suppose one reason is that I was lucky and for half that time my symptoms were quite mild and relapses few and far between. It's only been the last five years that I've had more relapses, the relapses have been more severe, and I've become physically less able.
It's taken half a decade to accept the reality, and to come to view myself as a disabled person.
There are a lot times (most of the time really) when I hate MS. The week has taken it out of me (as it so often does)... last night I went to bed at half past eight because I felt so rubbish, today I'm mostly languishing in bed with Classic FM and my laptop. Tonight I have to take my weekly shot of Avonex, although this is now faster and easier with the new pen there is still the risk that the side effects will 'hang over' into Saturday.
However, I've met some great people on-line through having MS. Some of them have MS and some of them have other disabling auto-immune diseases. There is this whole massive community of people who blog and hang out on twitter providing support out there; lively and interesting, varied and diverse - and if not for MS I'd probably never have met any of them.
It isn't much to take away, but every cloud, no matter how dark, does have a silver lining.
I would find MS so much harder to bear with out the Tweeters & bloggers. The dark humour, the support, and the people who just get it when you say you're being hugged are invaluable.
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