By: Sheryl Skutelsky
I’ve personally switched MS medications 3 times over the 14 years since I was diagnosed. It was a little over a year ago that I went for monthly infusions.
I would walk into the infusion center, and no matter how hectic it seemed at times, there was Kristen always smiling. Especially in the beginning, this was a place of fear for me. My veins saw a needle coming, and they would literally slide to the side. Kristen had the patience of a saint, and the most amazing bedside manner.
Unlike so many, I wasn’t doing well on the medication. I began to experience severe joint pain, and I finally had to give up and move on to the next medication.
However, I will never forget the difference it made in my life to have a nurse like Kristen. She cared about each and every one of us, and I swear she could do 20 things at once and get them all right.
To this day whenever I visit my neurologist, and he says that I need bloodwork done, I’ll patiently wait until Kristen has a free moment – not just because she’s the only one that can find my vein on one try, but because her smile can light up anyone’s bad MS days.
*Sheryl Skutelsky, diagnosed in 2001, has learned how to live positively with multiple sclerosis. Sheryl’s passion has always been graphic design. Her symptoms have become an inconvenience to her work, so she now uses her skills and creativity to reach out to others about MS. Sheryl is a patient advocate speaker for Biogen Idec. She also writes for Healthline.com, and she is an Internet radio host with her own show, Fix MS Now. Check out her Fix MS Now page on Facebook which has more than 10,000 followers. You can help raise MS awareness one “like” at a time by visiting: http://www.facebook.com/fixmsnow.
