Living with M.S.

"Living with M.S. is sort of like training for a long race. The harder you try, and the longer you keep at it, the stronger you become.
Eventually, looking back, you may be amazed at the power you possessed, even when you had no idea it was within your reach." (Linda Ann Nickerson)

Monday

A-Z promising quotes: Quitting




Quitting isn’t an option with multiple sclerosis. First, people don’t generally die from MS. It’s not a life sentence, it’s a lifelong condition – at least, until medical research finds a cure for it.

But sometimes one might feel like quitting. Or maybe just ceasing to try. That’s not hard to understand – from the MSer’s viewpoint. There simply are times when life with MS becomes downright difficult and possibly discouraging.

But quitting doesn’t work, especially if we stay in the quit position. Maybe any of us has quit for a moment or a spell. It’s just dangerous to wallow there, I think. I’ve tried that, and it leads to bad places.

Before I was diagnosed with MS, doctors thought I had a brain tumor. For six long months, I endured MRI after MRI. I went to see an oncologist.

I waited for results … and a clear answer. By the time the neurological experts finally figured out I had a weird looking MS lesion – and not a really scary big brain tumor – the news came as a relief.

“Thank God it’s MS, instead of brain cancer,” I said.

See, that’s the thing.

If the doctors had immediately pinpointed the MS, I would probably have been even more devastated about it. But, from the perspective of waiting out a possible brain cancer diagnosis, the news was a much lesser blow.

MS is still terrible. I hate it. I wish I didn’t have it. But I am unmistakably glad I don’t have a humongous amorphous and potentially changing glioblastoma lurking inside my skull. That was about six years ago, and I am still here, giving it all I’ve got to kick MS to the curb.

Maybe life really is all about perspective.

So I am not quitting. And I hope you won’t, either.

Here's an inspiring quotation from American minister and positive thinking author Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993):

"It's always too soon to quit."

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2 comments:

  1. Great quote! When I was diagnosed 16 years ago I had the same reaction. I'd been researching my symptoms (with help from librarians at the med school library) and my husband and I were convinced I had either an inoperable brain tumor or Ms. So our reaction, upon finding out I had ms, was "that's great! " And it's not great that I have ms, but it is great that I'm alive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great quote! When I was diagnosed 16 years ago I had the same reaction. I'd been researching my symptoms (with help from librarians at the med school library) and my husband and I were convinced I had either an inoperable brain tumor or Ms. So our reaction, upon finding out I had ms, was "that's great! " And it's not great that I have ms, but it is great that I'm alive.

    ReplyDelete