MS Progressive Types: Living with Happiness

You wrrite so well, express yourself so clearly and always are able to put a positive spin on things. Thank you for all that you add to our community.

Also, I am thrilled and honored to be mentioned and even moreso, to be your "on-line friend." We are joined at the NET!

There is one thing that all of us with MS have to be positive about and that is the future. The rate of progress and change is faster than ever. There are new drugs in the pipeline that are extremely promising (including ones specifically for SPMS) that will improve the quality of life for many of us. Real treatment that will make a real difference.

I am grateful that I am alive today to witness these changes and to be a beneficiary of them too.

Again, thank you, Vicki.

Michael

http://mgerber.blogspot.com

It is refreshing to read about the pursuit of happiness while being strapped with MS. You know, God only lets the truely *tough* among us get the really crappy diseases. He knows we can deal with it.

I really feel that the ability to find happiness in even the darkest of times is a strength unmatched. For with a positive attitude, it doesn't matter what the circumstance. We can't choose not to have MS, but we can choose to be happy.

Like the weed growing up through the crack in the pavement, it gets trampled, run over, sprayed with weed killer... yet there it is, with its one little blossom, showing the world it's beauty and being happy just to have life.

Happiness never clashes with the rest of your outfit; a smile goes with everything.

Thanks for sharing, Vicki, your Share Post made me...

HAPPY!

I do not have time to be unhappy.  I know I have MS.  I know I am mostly bedridden.  It bothers my companion much more than it bothers me.  Of course, she is the one who has to do many of the daily things for me that I cannot.  However, she would like simple things like going out to the diner together.

That may become possible.  I can get from the front door to the deck, but the three steps to the walkway have been an absolute barrier.  We are considering building a ramp, but the distance and height mean that it would be too steep.  So I figured out a curved ramp that swings to the side, and now the ramp is possible.  Then I considered the elevator built into handicapped vans that can lift a wheelchair inside.  Something like that might work for moving me off the deck.  An occupational therapist thought that it would be more expensive than a ramp, but less intrusive on the appearance of the house.  We have the options and the money to pick either, so the future says that I will in fact be getting out shopping and doing other activities that used to be so common.

In the meantime, organizing files keeps me busier than I had expected.  The screen of my old laptop was dying, so I got a new machine.  The old one still works, so I keep it upstairs in the bedroom.  I write on it when I am there and on the new one when I am downstairs.  Gadzooks, but now my files get scrambled too easily.  When I edit one up here, I then discover my edits are missing from the one downstairs.  There are ways of fixing that; carrying the edited files on a flash drive around my neck is obvious.  There is no way to carry the laptops around.  Setting up an in-house network sharing the hard drives is another.  eMailing the edits to me makes them available from either machine.  There are solutions, and in the process of working them out, I forget that I have MS.

Hello,

Thank you so much for your article.  As someone who has lived with MS for 29 years, more of those years, 16 in all, with secondary progressive I cannot stress the importance of your statement.  Recently I made a similar statement that appeared in an article on MS Central regarding a recent interview of Montell Williams on Oprah.  Space I have included an excerpt below:

"As I try to explain to readers in my book, Life Interrupted, It's Not All About Me, those of us suffering from MS, whether afflicted or acting as the caregiver for one who is afflicted with MS or any chronic illness for that matter the future is unpredictable. Especially when dealing with autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis. I tell readers, yes the disease is miserable, but it's your decision whether to go through the rest of your life smiling or crying and depressed.

 It's likely that we will always have the miserable disease whether we're smiling or crying and depressed, so how do you want to spend the rest of your days? It comes down to one of two choices? You can have your MS/chronic illness, basically your misery but you can have that misery and smile and try to make the best of it or you can have that misery and add your emotional misery to it."

Thank you, stay positive and God bless,

 Chris

Nice post about happiness, Vicki.
"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
Dalai Lama (1935 - present)

Thank you for such a reinforcing positive message.  My CHOICE is to go forward with the most positive attitude I can muster.  No doubt some days are better than others.  However each new day provides a new chance to be accepting, compassionate and happy

But what a bumpy road this funny sounding disease is giving me.  Like you I am a pollyanna.  I poked fun at the word that forever changed my life.  I am learning to live with this curse and am trying to turn it around!  I have tried many meds trying to curb this and am on a portocol now that actually has me possibly in a sort of remission.  Sarcoid like Lupus, gives one drastic symtoms when in sunlight.  I have high Vit D levels and have to keep them low by avoiding sunshine and supplementation.  I have found a gluten free diet helps too.  I concentrate on new recipes and remisssion and working on having what I call the "new normal living".  Summer is hard ....I want to run in the sun!  I want to work in the garden.  I try in the early morn and evenings but the bugs are out in fukk force and I cannot help but remember a bite with the following bulls eye rash that may have started this journey 25 years ago.  No docs had heard of Lyme back then so I was treated with a low dose "cillin" and left to breed all types of nasty "L-forms".  Those 25 years were very strange.  I was able to almost live normal until a strange symtom would take over my life.  Docs poked and proded but never checked me for the bacterias of Lyme.  I was diagnosed with CFS, Lupus and then Sarcoidisis.  This is what killed Bernie Mac as he chose steroids to be able to work then die a very early death!!!  I take each day as it comes.  I have three sons and an adoring hubby along with 3 pups.  Life has not been real kind with hubby being laid off and he is now a displaced worker in another state while I live alone trying to sell our home so I can join him.  This can get me down but I forge ahead, praying, hoping, keeping my head and spirits as high as I can get them ....:)  nancy lee

Thanks for the links, Vicki.  I'm going to share them with my family on facebook.  Happiness is love ... I agree with video as well.  I see my MS as time-consuming more than anything else.  I need to rest frequently during the day not only because of physical exhaustion but cognitive.  My cognitive abilities go down with the physical.  Energy tiredness energy tiredness energy tiredness  very cyclic throughout day and hard to judge.  Also, I must ask for rides when I want to go places that require long travel times.  I may be able to get where I'm going but I will endanger myself and others on the road when I drive back -- especially if I've had a good time!  Thanks again for the reminder that we need Pollyannas in the world especially now.