I woke up in tears yesterday. No reason. Nothing bad happened to me in the middle of the night. I didn’t wake up from a nightmare, my goldfish didn’t die and I wasn’t in a lot of unbearable pain. My emotions just went haywire all on their own. I hate when that happens. I take meds to help keep my emotions stabilized, but yesterday’s dose must have been a dud.
Multiple sclerosis has this way of messing with a person’s emotions. Sometimes there’s a Continue reading
They go together like milk and cookies, peas and carrots, Forrest Gump and Jenny.
Emotional and physical wellness go together like shoes and socks (or socks and sandals on middle aged males).
You can’t have one without the other.
But how so? Aren’t they two different things, some may ask?
I used to think Continue reading
I used to feel such relief that I was married and didn’t need to be out in the dating world. It sounded horrible, and I enjoyed having my relationship set with the expectation there’d be no divorce. Then I started having health issues and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after 15 years of marriage.
When a married person is diagnosed with MS, the rate of divorce is about the same as the general population, but the gender disparity is enormous. A study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center1 found that Continue reading
Ok fine!
I admit that denial of MS and its friends mental and physical stress is a battle. They go together and share equal importance. One affects the other. I had unknowingly adopted both.
Years of mental struggle and talk-therapy led me to medication eventually. I am not one to rely on pills. I try several options, before I let pills win. Anti-depressants are, for me, a must now.
I take a teeny-tiny dose, but it helps. It gets Continue reading
When I was diagnosed with MS, I was in a complete fog.
The diagnosis came by surprise and it was just six weeks after my mother passed from cancer.
Talk about a wave of emotions.
I was sad. I was angry. I was frustrated. I was lonely. I was overwhelmed.
While I wasn’t sure exactly how, I knew that these emotions were affecting my health. If I wanted to be on a path to healing, Continue reading
Almost a month into 2019 and thank God all the chatter about resolutions and fresh starts is winding down.
The reason my undies are in a bunch about this topic is because resolutions fail and fresh starts, though better, are often postponed. Continue reading
We are in the time of year that we hear many top ten countdowns. These top charts rank everything from music to cell phones and from movies to kitchen equipment. Here are some of my own top things in my life. Of course, I will not be saying goodbye to these items unless something better comes along. As for these irreplaceable items in my life, there is a bountiful list and here are seven.
Let me start with my wheeled chariot. Without this magical manual mechanism Continue reading
Sometimes we want to make changes, and sometimes we need to make changes. We choose some, and some are thrust upon us. It doesn’t always mean we’re ready or able to make them. Making a fresh start can be exciting and intimidating.
I’m a big fan of trying to make these changes easier. Like the placebo effect can help us feel better when we take sugar pills thinking they’re medication, I’m all for using how our brains work to – for lack of a better word – trick myself into doing things I want to do.
How we think, our opinions of ourselves, and the language we use can limit us and our personal growth. I’m considering Continue reading
As a nutrition coach for individuals living with multiple sclerosis, I walk each client through the changes they need to use diet and lifestyle to manage their symptoms.
It’s a process that I took myself through long before I was a nutrition coach. First, I overcame debilitating migraines through diet and lifestyle changes. Then when I was diagnosed with MS years later Continue reading
We all have that New Year’s resolution bug. For MS folks a fresh start comes every day, really. We learn that even tying our shoes in two tries instead of three is a fresh start.
It can be hard for many to see joy in the simple things. Just getting my hair in a ponytail is worth celebrating, for example. If people would take joy in simple things, maybe Continue reading