Who am I beyond the MS and what is MS?

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More than MSI am just your normal and ordinary girl who does have MS. I know I have talked a lot about dealing with pain, but there is more to me than that and there is more to MS than just pain. I am a sensitive, caring, loving, compassionate and extremely determined person! I am a devoted wife to my husband and a wonderful mother to our fur babies! I may have Multiple Sclerosis, but I am NOT MS. 

I was diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis 16 years ago. There are actually four different types of MS. Relapsing Remitting MS, Secondary-Progressive MS,Primary Progressive MS and Progressive-Relapsing MS. The severity of all are very different and the each person does experience different symptoms.

Now, I can speak more only about Relapsing Remitting MS, considering that is what I live with. I honestly do not know a lot about the other types, I just know that some are a lot worse than what I have. I guess you can say that I deal with an easy type of this disease, but it does still have a lot of triggers. A couple triggers I can say right away are, stress and heat! Stress has a horrible effect on everyone, but someone who deals with Multiple survivedSclerosis, it can cause them to have an exacerbation that takes time to heal from. Heat is another bad trigger point for me personally. Actually, when I get too hot or too cold, I start not feeling well. Changes in seasons can be difficult as the body is trying to adjust to the temperatures. It is definitely hard to live with this disease, but I will say in a way it has made me a stronger person. When you first hear the doctor say, “You have Multiple Sclerosis”, it felt to me like life could not go on. But, I have found over the years, life does go on and we make adjustments as necessary. 

The biggest thing I have to work on is, controlling my stress. I have always been the type of person that will stress, even over the smallest things in day-to-day life. All the stress that I have dealt with over the years has caught up to me several times, causing my condition to worsen for a short period of time. It is crazy, after all these year I have not learned to control the stress issues. Sometimes we have to learn Oceanwhat we can change and what we just have to accept and continue moving forward. It is hard to have our lives remain peaceful all the times, but when things get hectic, we must learn to do what we are able to  and know what we can not do. It is hard for me to accept that I can not change the world and make everyone close to me happy, if I could my life would be stress free, at all times! I always try to do the best I can and treat people like I would want to be treated, unfortunately not everyone has those same beliefs. I am the person that will go out of my way to help others and ease their suffering, but I know in my heart I can not help everyone, especially those that do not think they need help. 

I wanted to write a post a little different from my others, partially because I want you to know who I really am and partially because of some pretty solid advice I received from a fellow blogger. It is important that you understand more about what MS is, as I know not everyone understands MS. I will be writing another post in the coming days about what I do when I am dealing with an exacerbation, considering I feel like I am going through one at this point, I needed relay information to you slowly so I do not get too tired and my pain does not increase more.still waters

I hope that this post was both educational and interesting to you! I am going through a lot right now in life dealing with all my additional issues, so I am trying to rest more than I normally do. I am pretty bad at taking care of myself and way better at taking care of others! I did make a decision today though, I am going to return to work tomorrow but I am only going to work a half day. I do not think my body can handle working 8+ hours right now, so I am doing what is best for me! We will see how tomorrow goes for me!

I hope y’all have a great evening and I hope you are ready to start a new work week! Thank y’all for continuing to read my posts and making comments. It has been a great experience to connect with so many others and I am looking forward to getting to know more of you!

Love 2

 

Always, Alyssa

20 thoughts on “Who am I beyond the MS and what is MS?”

  1. I really needed to read this post tonight. I’ve been a shitty mood all night and just so damn tired all the time. Thank you for reminding me I’m not alone in this…sending you virtual hugs and good vibes

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  3. Great choice to work half a day! You knew what to do. I love that you’re going to add more info about MS. I have a hard time explaining my symptoms to people as well, since I have a relatively rare disease that causes other illnesses. I see eyes glaze over when I answer questions about my illness. And, like you, stress makes symptoms worse. I used to hate admitting that because I thought it meant I could control my disease or will it away completely. Yeah, dream on!
    Anyway, thanks for the post and have a great day.
    Aunt Martha

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    • Thank you Martha! It is frustrating when you explain your disease and people quickly lose interest! All doctors say reduce stress and that will help. I can not control my stress, so I as well thought if I could control my stress, I could control my illness. I do not think that is true though. I think illnesses think for themselves, no matter what we do.

      I will do additional posts about my illness and what happens with it. I might try to do that today! Thank you so much for your wonderful comment!
      Your Niece Alyssa!!

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  4. Alyssa, great post and interesting to see your focus has shifted from pain to using your knowledge and experience to help inform and support others! I’m looking forward to learning more about you and MS!

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  7. Great post, have you ever come across the blog called living with illness by a girl called Mckenzie she is very positive too I think you are so alike 😊

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    • Thank you! Yes, I do actually follow McKenzie and are right, she is very positive! I really try to keep things real and positive at the same time, which is hard some days! I hope you are having a good day!! I really appreciate your comment!!

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