Thank you for this inspiring posting, Mandy. The two individuals you write about are incredible and should make us all take a minute to consider how we think about our goals in life and how we go about achieving them. I find myself too often thinking that I have to give up so many goals because of the level of pain I am living with or the MS symptoms I have that affect my physical and cognitive abilities, but I should be thinking about the abilities I do have and how I can use them to achieve my goals. I may have to modify my goals a bit, attain additional resources, either an assistive device or human assistance, or perhaps change the timetable I had established, but with a little thought and a lot of perseverance there are still some things that mean a lot to me that I can achieve.
Will it be easy? NO! Will it be worth it? YES! I have lived with increasingly debilitating pain since I was 12 years old, (over 40 years) and yet until recently continued to bounce back after any of the 50 hospitalizations and 20 surgeries I have had (5 on my spine), and kept working to achieve my goals. I feel very good about those achievements and I miss the ability to work full time and continue to lead a fulfilling and productive life. When I first went on disability I believed I could still do so, in fact I looked forward to having time to put those efforts to programs and projects I had wanted to be involved in for a long time, however my body keeps getting weaker, the fatigue greater and the pain worse, to the point that I started withdrawing from everything and was not able to motivate myself to work on anything.
It is hearing stories like these that make me stop and realize how fortunate I am to be able to do as much as I can, after all I can sit here and type this while Mr. Bauby could only blink to communicate. And the book I have been writing for ten years is still in very draft form while his is written and successful. I now realize I have no excuse other than ones I make up for myself and that I am able to overcome those if I want to.
Will it be easy? NO! Will it be worth it? YES!
Denise
Thank you for this inspiring posting, Mandy. The two individuals you write about are incredible and should make us all take a minute to consider how we think about our goals in life and how we go about achieving them. I find myself too often thinking that I have to give up so many goals because of the level of pain I am living with or the MS symptoms I have that affect my physical and cognitive abilities, but I should be thinking about the abilities I do have and how I can use them to achieve my goals. I may have to modify my goals a bit, attain additional resources, either an assistive device or human assistance, or perhaps change the timetable I had established, but with a little thought and a lot of perseverance there are still some things that mean a lot to me that I can achieve.
Will it be easy? NO! Will it be worth it? YES! I have lived with increasingly debilitating pain since I was 12 years old, (over 40 years) and yet until recently continued to bounce back after any of the 50 hospitalizations and 20 surgeries I have had (5 on my spine), and kept working to achieve my goals. I feel very good about those achievements and I miss the ability to work full time and continue to lead a fulfilling and productive life. When I first went on disability I believed I could still do so, in fact I looked forward to having time to put those efforts to programs and projects I had wanted to be involved in for a long time, however my body keeps getting weaker, the fatigue greater and the pain worse, to the point that I started withdrawing from everything and was not able to motivate myself to work on anything.
It is hearing stories like these that make me stop and realize how fortunate I am to be able to do as much as I can, after all I can sit here and type this while Mr. Bauby could only blink to communicate. And the book I have been writing for ten years is still in very draft form while his is written and successful. I now realize I have no excuse other than ones I make up for myself and that I am able to overcome those if I want to.
Will it be easy? NO! Will it be worth it? YES!
Denise