there's strength in numbers

no matter what the diagnosis, people shouldn't face a disease alone. There's a certain freedom in commiserating with others in your situation, whether it be an in person group or an online forum - sharing ideas and stories with your contemporaries goes a long way in helping people cope and deal with their situations and lets people know that they are not alone. - All that said, I came back from my in-person support group for my multiple sclerosis just now and I feel pretty good, it was good to hear that my own neurologist is going to be involved in some upcoming medication studies and I also got to see some of my friends that I hadn't seen in a few months.... I wanted to share this because I feel it's never too late to speak your mind and have an open ear to listen at the same time.

quick note on me

I was just thinking of what was keeping me from driving, there is of course the obvious (my not being able to press my foot down adequately on a brake pedal in order to stop a car) after a few months of treatment and physical therapy my new hurdle became optic neuritis, I also have minor cognitive challenges which seemed to unnerve my family (difficulties in short term memory half of the time not in the sense of mistaking 2011 for 1991) Once I was cleared to drive again it was just a matter of retraining my brain - because during my 18 month driving hiatus my brain reverted to my 8 year old passenger only mindset. It's a slow process but it's worth it.

I make a difference!

I don't think of myself as an expert I just try to educate and enlighten as I go along. One of my previous postings about optic neuritis was featured on Erase MS website  http://lookingatmyms.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-i-got-my-reading-groove-back-or-how.html .. Not to gloat but I was thinking about my role the MS community today, I never thought of myself as an advocate but like the nerd I am I looked up advocate

ad·vo·cate

  [v. ad-vuh-keyt; n. ad-vuh-kit, -keyt] Show IPA verb, -cat·ed, -cat·ing, noun

verb (used with object)

1.

to speak or write in favor of; support or urge by argument;recommend publicly

by that definition not only am I an advocate but so are my fellow MS bloggers, my friends at my MS Support meeting and most of my Facebook friends as well. That leads me to what I did this morning, I went to my local Staples and took advantage of a coupon for free business cards (basically so I don't have to write down the blog address anymore)