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.

Last year right after I was diagnosed I was in full "ignorance is bliss"mode mostly because I didn't want to get my hopes up, also because my initial neurologist had absolutely NO bedside manner. So rather than suffer out loud I chose to isolate myself and learn as little as possible. Needless to say staying uninformed is absolutely the worst thing to do. Toward fall of 2010 I started attending a monthly support group, I really recommend a support group to any person with MS (regardless of stage) and for family members as well. I also recommend getting involved in your online MS community as well since it may be a bit easier to navigate it. Aside from using facebook and twitter (and this blog) I also use google reader to organize all my blogs together into a    neat and convenient location. Staying uninformed might delay possible progress that you can make.   I'm using my phone to piece this together so please excuse my run-on sentences and the jumbled together look of these words.