The other day, a young woman with MS shared her worry in a Facebook group that her disease would prevent her from playing with her grandchildren someday. Her concern got me thinking about how I’ve handled my MS around my grandchildren.
My granddaughter is almost 5 and will start kindergarten in the fall. My grandson is 3. They’ve never known me as a person who walks normally, without two canes or my scooter. In their eyes, my normal their normal. Maybe that’s because I’ve tried to weave my MS into their lives as naturally as I can.
As a 2-year-old, my granddaughter was fascinated with my canes. “Cane” was an early word in her vocabulary. I helped my grandson learn to walk using my canes. Just take a look at the following home video:
Not long after that video was made, my grandson began walking on his own. He still loves to play with my canes, and so does his sister. They also love to ride on my lap when I’m on my scooter.
Learning to live with attitude
Attitude has a lot to do with living well with MS. One of my little sayings is (stop me if you’ve heard this one before): “Even a pair of deuces can be a winning hand if you play it well.” Kayla Montgomery is a young woman with MS who has the right attitude to play that hand. But, didn’t start out that way.
Kayla tells her story in the video below. Watching it is worth the 10 minutes it will take from your day. But if you’re in a rush, scroll past the video and I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version.
Kayla Montgomery was 15 when she was diagnosed with MS. She says the disease filled her with “bitterness and fear.” She even thought about quitting one of her passions: running. “What’s the point,” she thought. “I used my diagnosis as an excuse to be afraid.”
After a year of being miserable Kayla says she had a turnaround. Rather than letting MS get the best of her, she decided that she would take control of her MS. She would use her disease as a “motivation” to overcome her fatigue, migraine, and the lack of feeling in her legs that happened when she got overheated. Kayla returned to running. She used her MS motivation to push her toward winning state titles and thento become a runner in college. “We can all turn something bad into something amazing,” she says.
MS is what you make it
To the young lady who was concerned that she wouldn’t be able to play with her grandchildren someday, I say your life with MS is what you make it. You can sit and watch your grandson learn to walk or you and your canes can walk with him. You can choose to hide from the storm or, as Kayla Montgomery has done, you can learn to run through the rain. I firmly believe that even if you get a little wet, putting on your track shoes is the best option.
(This is an edited version of my column that appears on the MS News Today website).
