February 11

16 years ago today I was diagnosed with MS. It was a day that began with a series of random tests. Then, during an MRI of a region of my spine, all the tests changed. After 3 years of being told, "this can't be MS," I was told "you have MS." And what a journey it has been!

This week I had an appointment with my (awesome) MS doc who I call "Count." He told me I'm ok--my MS is treated kind of like a spinal cord injury because even after this long, the MS remains in 1 spot in my spine, but not in my brain. So my difficulties walking are because the spinal area is smaller than the brain. My doctor told me, well, legs, not as important as (he points to the following) the mind and the heart, which I must keep strong. But...something was not captured there.

Today I went and bought a necklace to capture the "forgotten." Good things can happen in February, really. My daughter was born in Feb, three days shy of when my Grandma would have turned 100 (she lived on earth to be 99). The necklace has an amethyst stone, the birthstone for Feb. And it is part of a cross, so the forgotten thing to keep strong is FAITH, which has seen me through so much.

Faith made me feel the presence of God, shortly after I was diagnosed with MS. Faith has allowed me to feel God's presence, through good times and bad. And in the worst of it all, when a reaction to steroids threw me into a deep depression, faith found me driving to church (which made no sense at the time), and faith let me feel God there, and I knew then that I needed help. Faith--through good times and bad--the support of God. And as I so often write,

Thanks be to God.