Swinging Doors, Chapter 7

Into the second year of our group Mr. T and I decided we needed a bit more help. After all, we still had our MS to deal with. There was a lady there who started from the beginning of our group and she had always been a lot of help and she seemed to want to be on our team so we asked her to join and she accepted. At the start of each New Year we had a meeting with just the three of us to discuss our plans for that year.

But by the 6th year a lot had changed Mr. T’s MS was getting bad enough that he pretty much just wanted to sit at the group meetings and just be a member. So Mrs. M as I will call her largely took over his spot, and the group understood all this. I however was not thrilled at how things were going, let’s just say our personalities just did not mesh!

At our private 6yr meeting I just could not come to terms on how the two of them wanted the next year to go at all. I told them how I felt and that I was stepping down and leaving the group. They were a bit taken back and then I gathered up my things and left, there simply was no more to discuss. I never heard from or saw either one again. Just like leaving a regular job, when enough is enough. Oh the years were good just not at the end. I had  made two special friends at the group but they had already left the group due to Mrs. M. However we did stay in touch.

Well that phase was done and so was all my volunteering with the MS Society. By now though we had been thinking of moving away to be much closer to my husband’s work. Not an easy decision since we loved the town and had lived there 18yrs. But the horrendously long commutes for my husband had been brutal!

Never thought I would get thru all one has to do to move after all that time and then start all over at a new place. My MS sure did not appreciate all this as my symptoms were all over the place! The up side of all this was an easy commute for my husband and we now lived in a lovely brand new huge gated complex. It was for people 55 an older, there were no stairs anywhere or curbs to worry over. It had everything we wanted and didn’t want.

So we settled into daily living. In the last few months of my support group a visiting MS group leader suggested we all write how we feel about our MS and read it at the next meeting. This didn’t sit well with the group and the following month only 6  people had written anything to share, I was one of them. That same group leader came to this meeting also. Each read what they wrote and then we discussed it.

After the meeting was over and everyone was leaving this man came up to me and said there was a new Online MS Magazine that he had just started to write for and I should submit what I just wrote, for he liked it and knew the editor would love it. I about fell over and said I am not a ‘writer.’ I couldn’t do that! He said think about it and gave me the web address.

Well a couple of months later I sent the magazine what I had written. The editor loved it. She had MSand was a school teacher until MS forced her to retire. In the nine years that I wrote for it I learned SO much and made some amazing friends.

So now I had that to do at our new place and was getting a lot better learning all about computers. We have now lived here about 14 yrs. and in that time both my parents passed away and that was so upsetting and sad. My husband retired 8 yrs. ago and that came with a negative shock I never saw coming that totally blindsided me and shook me to the bottom of my heart. They say to keep stress at bay when you have MS, but gosh I am still working on that one. Stress is BAD for us I can sure attest to that!

As you can see a lot of doors either closed, opened or remain ajar. In other words, life goes on in spite of MS but it does at times teach you how to deal with other problems and that is a good thing.

Well this is my generalized journey to date. My next blogs will be about specific MS things and my thoughts about them from what I have learned. For everyone with MS their journey is unique and special and to be cared about.

Next Blog: MS and Medications

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