I signed up to attend a wellness seminar being offered by the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Georgia Chapter titled, “Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions”. It’s a 6 week program that is not specifically for MS patients but geared toward teaching people with chronic diseases how to self manage their disease so that life just becomes easier all round. Of course, since it’s being offered by the MS Society, all the attendees actually do have MS.
It’s the first time that I’ve ever been around other “people like me” and i have to say that i am enjoying it thoroughly. It’s a small “class” and so everyone’s been very open and honest and even though i always knew that there are other people going thru the same thing that i’m going thru, being in these sessions has driven home the fact that I am not “alone”. Sharing stories etc, has also driven home the fact that MS is, I think, an incredible disease. Whereas many of our syptoms are similar, the way our bodies react can be quite different! It’s actually been amazing to me and i have to think, it’s no wonder there is no cure for it. Scientists must be so confused about how it will affect 1 person to another. One person told me last nite that she refers to MS as a designer disease; everyone has their own “one of a kind” story to tell.
I’ve been to 2 sessions so far and in each they’ve gone go thru different techniques that we can use to overcome what might be bothering us at any given point in time. Last nite’s class focused on Physical Activity and the pros of (u guessed it!) exercising. We were given a book at the first session to use as a reference and in this book are different stregth building and stretching exercises that we can focus on to assist with our various weaknesses…I will be incorporating some of them into my exercise routine and hopefully i will see an improvement in the weakness i feel in my feet/legs. More to come on this….
