Why do I say what I say? Why do I put in writing and post it here for all who want to, to read and think about? The answer is long and easy, depending on how "YOU" look at it. Twenty plus years ago, when I was diagnosed (Dx'd). I was a younger man with a future ahead of me. I had plans, dreams hopes, like "YOU". Then a visit to a doctor, then another, a few tests and everything in my life was turned upside down and inside out. When I say everything, I mean everything. No more flying, wife divorced me so quick my head spun and even my physical location was changed. We shall not mention bank balance it was all gone. I thought I was done for. I looked at the ms pamphlets and saw old ladies in wheelchairs, was that my future.? Why me? What did I do' How could this have happened, to me? Yes, like "YOU" I was terrified, I did not know what to do first second or even third. I turned to a website run by a lady in England called Joolys joint and started asking questions. Lots and lots of them. I formed a very close friendship with a young lady, a little older. We have rarely been apart for the last twenty or so years. "YOU" know her as she who must be obeyed. I took the only available Disease-Modifying Therapy DMT, back then. Beta Interferon, put my head down, asked questions and learned what was happening to me. Twenty-odd years later I have survived and lead a reasonably good existence. Not what my original prognosis was, but I survived all the downhills, scary strange pains and embarrassments and so can "YOU". There is a lot more available to "YOU" today than there was for me long ago, all "YOU" have to do is ask and I am sure somebody somewhere can give "YOU" advice.
It is quite okay to be scared, to cry, to swear, but when "YOU" have finished there are suggestions. Maybe not answers, ms has very few of them, but suggestions and recommendations. Use them, make them fit your lifestyle and dreams. Have dreams, merely accept that they are going to be different now.
I will tell "YOU" this because I truly wish somebody had told me long ago. It honestly will be okay. Scary and painful at times. "YOU" might be embarrassed, people that "YOU" thought would be there forever will abandon "YOU". Strangers may become the rocks that "YOU" never had before. It is possible to live through this. Make it an adventure, your very own quest. Something that nobody else can do, but "YOU". "YOU" are special in a very good way. Few are chosen to live this life, on the entire planet, there are only a few millions of us out of several billion human beings travelling around our star. Try to look at it as if "YOU" are special and chosen, not cursed. It is easier that way.
I will keep saying that to "YOU", because I wish somebody had said that to me.
Royce the ms writer
You are good, you are strong and you can live this life, believe in yourself
