I began by practicing exercise in a new way. Exercise offers significant benefits for people with MS, helping to improve mobility, balance and overall strength.  It also helps reduce fatigue, enhance mood, and promote a better overall quality of life. 

A couple years after I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis I started exercising slowly.  I drove my car to the high school track, got my walker out and wheeled it to the track.

  On this Thankful Thursday, I’m very grateful for exercise. I exercised my brain by accomplishing my college degree, then two masters and finally a doctoral degree from Seattle University. My plan, which hatched during the late eighties, was to become “someday” a high school principal. I learned at that time, as a woman, I’d need to complete a doctoral degree if I wanted to be a high school principal.

     So, I set about accomplishing my goals. All the education goals were completed by 2005 when I was forty-one. As I walked in my doctoral graduation, I had no idea that a soon to be discovered disease of Multiple Sclerosis was about to surprise all my goals.

I had given up any hope for my right hand to ever work again.  Then, I started following some research on the Neufit device, which was having some positive affects on some M.S. folks.  It’s similar to a tens unit, but unlike a tens unit, which works on Alternating Current, (A.C.) it utilizes Direct Currents (D.C.).

As someone with multiple sclerosis, I became profoundly disabled from the disease.  I was unable to keep doing the work I loved as a teacher and Elementary School Principal.   I was unable to see clearly.  I was unable to walk to the end of my driveway (50 feet) and stand at the kitchen stove for longer than 20 seconds.

Some events were driven by my own decisions, others driven simply by life. Misfortune. Selfishness. Vanity. Yet, I wouldn’t go back and change them. They’ve helped make me become who I am today. I’m pretty sure I’d tell my younger self that I’d rather not hear any details. Surely the details wouldn’t be believed by my younger self. My younger self would tell me I couldn’t possibly do those things.

“ Generosity: The habit of giving freely without expecting anything in return.” — Anonymous

My husband has taught me a lot about generosity without even knowing he’s done it.  He hasn’t given me a book on generosity or told me how to do it nor given me some sermonette about it.  He lives it.

My motivation Post M.S. is very different.  In the early stages of the disease I didn’t have all the assistive devices (cane, walker, wheelchair) that I currently have in my M.S toolkit.  So, when my walking ability was impacted, my strong daughter would carry me around the house on her back.  Walking to the end of my driveway (about 50 yards), to take out the trash, was impossible.  Standing over the kitchen stove for longer than 10 seconds wasn’t possible.

Ok, this is where calendar neurosis tries to rear its ugly head.  I’m tempted to block out a few chunks of time to be able to “plan for” the “always something.”  Nope.  I’m not going to do it.  Nope.  What I need to do is not run such a tight schedule, so that I’m open and available cognitively and emotionally to whatever comes into my day.