A special freedom can be found in finding an MSer friend

I have a new friend who has multiple sclerosis. And she’s awesome.

I’m so glad.

Let me rephrase that. I am sorry my new friend has MS. I wish with all my heart she didn’t. But she does. She’s awesome anyway. In fact, she is even awesomer (I know that’s not a real word.) because she has MS and doesn’t let it sideline her.

MS can isolate us. It’s easy to hunker down and basically become hermits when the MS MonSter attacks us. We don’t feel good. We’re exhausted. We’re dizzy and queasy and tingly and uncomfortable in our own bodies. Stuff hurts. So it’s hard to get up and get out into the world when MS is at its worst.

But we do it anyway. And often we find blessings when we’re out and about.

Like my new friend.

She’s having a really tough time right now with MS. Her legs buckle beneath her without warning. She cannot feel one of her feet. She’s struggling with vertigo and nerve pain. And the summer heat is making all those things worse.

But she’s still smiling.

Immediately after meeting one another, while pursuing a mutual hobby with friends, we began “talking MS.” Our friends clearly couldn’t follow much of the conversation, as we veered into all sorts of MS-related strangeness.

• “Do you feel cold when everyone else is hot, and hot when everyone else is cold?”
• “Are you doing shots?”
• “What happens when you stand up or turn around too fast?”
• “How do you stay in the MRI for an hour or two?”
• “Can you work out at the gym one day and have to stay in bed the next?”
• “Did you do the spinal tap?”
• “Do you get dizzy, if you lay flat on your back?”
• “Have you ever lost your eyesight for a few weeks or months?”

We could have gone on for hours. And we both felt heard and understood and affirmed for the first time in a long while. Because another MSer gets it.

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