Some of life's greatest lessons come from unfortunate events...I have become at least a little wiser because of my diagnosis and I think I've got plenty more to learn from it. One of the first lessons I learned is that we have been raised in a society where we believe that certain things only happen at certain ages. "He did that because he is young", "She is walking like that because she is old"...well the reality is WE ARE WRONG!!! I am 25...I was officially diagnosised when I was 23, my neurologist thinks the leg issues I've had for over six years were the start of my symptoms which means I've had MS since I was 18. Yet, the first thing my regular doctor said when I was complaining over and over again was "Well, what you are describing sounds similar to MS, however, the likelihood that you have a rare disease like that at your age just isn't very likely." But its not just doctors...its normal everyday people like you and me. I worked in an optometrists office prior to having my son and becoming a stay at home mom. Some of my worst symptoms came with the first treatment we tried...my tremors went from something I could sort of control to completely out of control, this just being one example. I had patients day after day ask me why my hands were shaking because I was way too young to have anything seriously wrong with me. One man in particular I will remember for the rest of my life...he wasn't a regular patient of ours just a walk in off the street, meaning I didn't know him like I knew some of my other patients. Yet he had the guts to say something out loud that I don't think I could have ever prepared myself for. I was filling out the order form for his glasses and struggling to keep the pen where I wanted it and he looks and me and says "I'm going to be a little personal and I probably shouldn't even ask this but are you a recovering alcoholic??" REALLY!?!?!?! He then goes on to say "You just look too young to have anything else wrong with you that could be causing that shaking." Okay I am not a genius, nor will I ever claim to be...BUT how the hell do I look too young to have a disease and yet I don't look too young to be a recovering alcoholic...I had only been legally able to drink for three years at this point, seriously is that even possible? Needless to say my lesson from this part of the disease is that you never know what people may have going on. Just because they look young or old doesn't mean that they should or shouldn't have something wrong with them. So now when I see that girl in Walmart using a motorized cart that looks like she is in her early 20's, I don't ever think "wow she's awfully lazy" I think "hmm...I wonder if she has something like what I have". And when I see that old couple hopping on their motorcycle like they are still 25 (see what I mean we assume that you shouldn't be doing those things at a certain age)...I don't think "wow they are still doing that at that age", I think "that is awesome they are living their lives to the fullest, go them!!". We could all learn a thing or two from one another if we gave ourselves a chance to...so my word to the wise today is age is simply a number, nothing more and absolutely nothing less.
Keep smiling out there...life is too short to do anything else.
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