Archive for category Faith
We are not homeless
Posted by crusaderjennblog in Faith on December 23, 2014
As I reread my posts, I realized the last one over six months ago, I left hanging and failed to update some things like, did we move? And did we still have a home? The thing is, we were hanging by a thread with no clear path. And then, my husband managed to obtain a position. That was so God. That we had no answers and miracle upon miracles, I mentioned before that God is never late and He’s always, always on time. And God provided just when my husband’s unemployment ran out. The position was not what I would call ideal because of the graveyard hours and the part of town where one of the work-sites was located, but it was legal, paid the bills and ensured we could remain in our home.
And then another answer to prayer… Earlier in the year, my husband applied for a sales position, but never heard from the company again after they initially called. Then, months later in late October, he finally heard from them again. He interviewed, was offered a job and started the second week of November. The timing of that additional answer to prayer was incredible. The graveyard position he worked ensured a crappy sleep schedule in addition to requiring that he remain on his feet the entire shift. My husband had injured his knee playing soccer a couple of years ago and even after surgery, his mobility never returned to what it once was, so being on his feet nonstop, even with decent shoes, was taking it’s tole. His increasing knee pain and lack of sleep were making him weary and he mentioned filing for disability. And right after that, he got the call to interview with the company where he works currently. God’s timing is perfect. And because it is not a regionally based sales position, he should be able to take the job with him when we’re hoping to move north next spring. Yay!
With each challenge, God has provided, but I like to have my plans and to-do lists mapped-out ahead of time and with great specificity, so this waiting for answers process has been brutal on my psyche because of that whole inner-control-freak issue that I battle with for dominance consistently. More than anything through this process of waiting to plan, God keeps telling me, “Not now, Jenn.” And yet, here I am continuing to attempt to control things. I have this perception that God must shake his head as he looks at me, “There Jenn goes again and why doesn’t she just rest in My peace? She’d be a lot more comfortable. That girl is a walking panic-attack.” As hard as I try to just let God be God, I feel I must prepare and think ahead. And what that says is that I don’t trust God to take care of things so I’m going to take care of it myself.
I get it. I really do and this year has been such a massive challenge for my faith. I had written about my experience years ago as I prayed for, hoped and waited for healing and my current set of circumstances is similar in that I MUST WAIT. In my head, I keep hearing the childhood song, “He’s got the whole world in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hands…” and I’ve gained some much-needed comfort from reciting those words as I’ve found myself doubting if God can handle this. Shame on me for even questioning him because I’ve seen and experienced the blessing of God’s healing power, his healing in my marriage, his ongoing provision for family and friends and yet I still have the audacity to question him. Really, Lord? Can you handle getting us back to Washington? And as I replay those song lyrics in my head, I get a resounding, “Yes. Now be still!” I am an ongoing work in progress and I’m prayerful that one of these days soon, the relationship I once had with my Creator will get back to where it was. Back then, I was consistently at peace with everything instead of allowing the inconsequential crap of life to provide interference…
Joseph and Mary had less than ideal surroundings as they journeyed to Bethlehem on a donkey while she was pregnant only to give birth in a stable, but it was fine, as the Lord provided what they needed and as He kept them safe and protected. Neither of them obtained a memo about Gods’s plan and the simplicity of God bringing the savior of the world to a manger causes me shame and I’m embarrassed of my lofty expectations. Who am I? Thank you, Lord for the gift of your Son and for keeping things in perspective.
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A Test of Faith
Posted by crusaderjennblog in Bible, Faith, Grace, Inspiration, Jesus, Multiple Sclerosis, Stress and MS on April 16, 2014
I’ve mentioned that I have MS, but be confident that I only mention the relevance again because I realized as I’ve blogged, I’ve failed to explain not only why I believe in God and have a relationship with him, but also why I continue to believe. God has stretched my faith over the years, but most noticeably during the last two. The first time was over a decade ago when MS side-lined me by placing me in a wheelchair. Back then, If I wanted to remain an active part of society, a wheelchair was mandatory for outings like a trip to the mall or for supporting all my family and friends who obtained donations for and walked with supporters of the annual MS Walk. Being forced into an uncomfortable position was humbling. I hated asking for help, but my circumstances muscled me out of my comfort-zone and created a much-needed level of humility.
I was in a wheelchair for a few years learning to give-up everything to God when I stumbled upon information that God allowed to be used to improve my health and essentially over time placed my MS in ‘remission,’ which was faith test number one. I was grateful that God allowed me to find the information, but it didn’t take me long to start taking everything for granted, like the awesome miraculous healing that I received, like the ongoing physical help I received from family and friends when they pushed my wheelchair, like the encouragement God provided when I was in my pit of despair. Within a year of God healing me, I failed to make my personal devotions and prayer time a priority and elevated myself to being too busy to make time for God. I became both arrogant and ignorant for esteeming myself so highly and thinking that if I hadn’t located the healing information, MS still would have gotten better because I’m Jenn and I’m…awesome. Shame on me for over-esteeming myself when I should have praised God for a priceless blessing!
Fast forward several years to 2012 when we were in the process of buying a home in Nevada and it was shortly thereafter, that my husband and I began having marital issues. All of this background is necessary to explain that God was again humbling me and drawing me back to him because I had placed God ‘on-hold,’ but was beginning to recognize that by not allowing him to guide me daily, I made unwise decisions. Also by not allowing God to provide my path, I became as much part of the ‘problem’ as I had determined my husband was. Could I get another shame on me?! It was plainly obvious my husband was making bad decisions, but I could have just placed my faith in God, that the Holy Spirit would convict my husband instead of Divinely anointing myself to be God’s chosen messenger to convict my husband. I should have asked God to guide me in the situation because although I was late getting on board with GOD‘s plan, He worked through both of us and is continuing to work in us. And praise God because it was only because of his Divine intervention, obviously minus my misguided help, that we are still married and committed to remain that way and work through issues instead of giving up and becoming another statistic, which was faith test number two.
I’ll fast forward again to when my husband’s favorite job-to-date was eliminated as the organization could no longer afford to employ a graphic designer. It was almost immediate after losing that position that he felt God telling him that we should return to Washington. My husband sharing that piece of news was the best thing I’d heard since we moved to Nevada because it was an answer to prayer. I’ve never felt settled in NV and with each challenge presented, I felt it was ‘just another’ consequence of not seeking God prior to moving a few years ago. If we had waited for God’s leading, we likely would not have moved instead of being lead by our own selfish desires to get away from the surplus of Pacific Northwest rain. So, since last October, moving and my husband locating work has been in our daily prayer. He’s applied for many positions between where we live in NV and where we want to return in Washington and there’s been little response. My husband has built a very strong resume, but God hasn’t opened any likely doors that would accommodate his background or even any unlikely doors for positions he could perform with little or no training. The last six months have created a stronger faith in God for both of us because when his unemployment benefits run out, that’s it. As in the income is final, at which point we’ll be dependent on my small disability income. As this is a tad scary, our current set of circumstances has enveloped us in faith test number three.
One may wonder why I don’t work. My skill-set within the financial industry became null and void when those attention-to-detail related skills were what ultimately required me to take a short-term leave-of-absence only to cause permanent disability. My husband is the bread-winner and actively pursuing employment every day. During the last six months, while he’s been applying for employment, I’ve been packing the house. I’ve been boxing-up our belongings because the fact is that in April, our income is final with a limited number of days before we’ll have to be out of our home. Have I mentioned this is a tad scary to be packed-up with nowhere to go? Our home now is bare-bones with only the empty larger pieces of furniture remaining in the house as they’re too heavy for us to move to the garage. Shelves, drawers and nearly all cupboards are packed with only the essentials available, which means that at any point, we’re probably close to 98.5% ready to load a moving-truck and start the caravan north. My husband’s final unemployment benefits arrive next week and our six-month safety-net will also be dried-up, which also will nearly empty our savings. And there is nothing indicative that allows us to start creating an action-plan. I think a typical person would be in the midst of a severe panic-attack and scared-to-death of our situation, but as the drop-date has hovered closer and even closer, God has given both of us a tremendous sense of peace. The adage that ‘God meets you where you are’ has been confirmed over and over through this and more recently, even more consistently. Yes, we’re clear that people think we’re ignorant and foolish for believing in an unseen God. However, understand that because God has already proven his faithfulness in healing my MS, in healing our marriage and providing an abundance of answers to prayer for family, not to mention providing significant guidance throughout the Bible(not that He needed to), combined with the fact that we are doing what we’re supposed to in seeking him and praying for answers, that we have no reason to doubt God’s promise to provide a break-through. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
We also believe that God has allowed my husband to remain unemployed so that we would have the time to get into more positive habits of daily devotions and prayer time together, of which we’ve taken full-advantage. Our daily devotions and prayer time has further solidified our spiritual walks. Now, if my husband played video games and did nothing of value each day, then there would be a problem having faith while doing nothing that promoted faith, but as that is not the case, we remain faithful in believing that God will soon provide the financial means to get us back to Washington, since it’s clear that’s where He’s guiding us since He has not opened a door to work in Nevada. Each day we see daily email scripture subscriptions and at church every week, we hear a much-needed message that relates to waning faith, which is ultimately enough to help us stay the course and energize us to ‘keep the faith’ another day as we continue to trust in God. Back when I was learning to trust in God, the following became my ‘go-to’ source of encouragement and still remains, Isaiah 40:31, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Trusting in God also means trusting in his timing. God is never late and He is always, always on-time. We have placed our trust in God about this entire situation and look forward to and are praying that God would be preparing us for whatever blessing is on the horizon.
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Merry Christmas!
Posted by crusaderjennblog in Faith, Faith in the Midst of Illness, Grace, Living with Living with Multiple Sclerosis, Maintaining Faith, MS, MS Fight Club, Nervous System, Neurological Conditions, Stress and MS, Women with MS on December 25, 2013
Yesterday, we made plans to visit Las Vegas’s hotels that display extravagant and beautiful Christmas decor. We set a time to get-together with another couple (my husband’s pseudo-family), but we got distracted and failed to call the other couple in a timely fashion to let them know we were running late. My husband asked me to call and warned that there’d be “drama.” I called and apologized and laughed explaining that we didn’t realize it was so late, but before I could even finish an apology, the wife interrupted by unleashing a tirade about ruining their day, ruining their plans, etc., then hung up on me. Wow! Silly me, because I thought the practice of hanging up on someone, was, “So junior high!” but this retired woman is nearly a half of a century late for bringing-back the immature behavior.
But……. that wasn’t the first time. About eighteen months ago, the wife (very much a stranger at the time) pulled the same stunt, yelling at me, unleashing her verbal venom that began when I returned her call. Her prior message neither indicated it was urgent or life-threatening, so when I did call her back within a couple of days, she began her tirade with, “You’re so selfish, Jennifer for not calling sooner, you’ve always been selfish and it’s no wonder why people think you’re selfish.” Clearly, she has control issues in that she does not maintain any effective filters or maintain self-control or consideration for the damage she causes during her rantings. Bless her daughter-in-law who explained that they take the high-road because it costs to much to be involved when the wife is mid-metamorphosis into Wifezilla. No wonder they limit their contact! We’re not even actual family, so my guess is that everyone gets their “fair-share” of the woe-man’s mean-streak.
Return to present when my husband heard yesterday’s call because it was on speaker. He got an angry message from the husband shortly after Wifezilla ranted at me and said he’d wait a day to call. The whole thing should not have been a “thing,” but the way she yelled and spewed, one might think that the world ended. Good grief – it was a plan to see some Christmas lights! I received a call this morning from the husband, saw who on caller ID, but before I answered, I prayed and asked God over and over to allow cooler heads to prevail. I was never angry, just a little irritated that this was even an issue in the first place. Our call was friendly and he said they’d cooled off (thank you, Lord) and when he paused, I took the opportunity to express that our intent was never to “ruin everyone’s day,” we were distracted, I was sorry for not calling sooner and that I hoped we can all get past this. I am thankful that the husband called and used clear thinking in this situation because Wife’s habit of dramatic histrionics is over-the-top and unnecessary.
I place emphasis on the point to avoid getting caught up in irrelevant, nonsensical situations like this. I learned from various experience in the past, that stress is very much a catapult to an MS retrogression. Once I learned to not allow various stress triggers into my thought-patterns and over-all-life, my health improved. It became simple to “not play a culprit’s game.” Yesterday, when I didn’t react to the woe-man’s theatrics, I did myself a favor and at the same time, I did not give in to the not-so-enticing temptation that Satan dangled before me, and therefore honored God. I did take the high road and that isn’t to praise my own self-control, but to convey the necessity of recognizing one’s stress-triggers. Learning to recognize and control these triggers by walking away from them or choosing to NOT engage in them, is essential especially for family / friend gatherings. Remember gatherings are supposed to be celebratory and by giving in to engaging in nonsense, we take attention away from the focal point.
Because I am away from my family in Washington through 2013’s holidays, I am so grateful for the years and years of family birthdays, Thanksgivings and Christmases. I miss my family terribly and I think because of this silly situation, I am even more sensitive to NOT allowing irrelevant crap take the spotlight from the reason for the season. A few days ago, I wrote the entry “Filterless.” Today’s entry piggy-backed on “Filterless.” Appreciate and love your families to the fullest. Don’t miss an occasion to share that you love your families and friends and don’t waste the opportunity to apologize if needed as there may not be another opportunity to do so. Thank you for reading. Have a very Merry Christmas!
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Filterless: an act of failing to use courtesy or common sense in conversation
Posted by crusaderjennblog in Faith, Faith in the Midst of Illness, Grace, Living with MS, Maintaining Faith, MS, MS Fight Club, Neurological Conditions, Relapsing Remitting, Relapsing Remitting MS, Women with MS on December 18, 2013
I’ve missed writing the last few weeks, but my absence gave me a much-needed opportunity to reevaluate my blog as I’ve continued reading several that I follow. Most blogs are treated as an appropriate means of communicating information, ideas or suggestions, recipes, life, or health challenges, etc. and I want to applaud those who successfully maintain their blogs with consistent posts and varied topics. The past weeks I’ve been discouraged, unmotivated to write and actively trying to understand what has been pressing on me about my blog. When something is unclear or “bugging” me, I address it in prayer and ask God to reveal to me whatever “it” is and God will often cause me to think of something in a direction where my mind was not even going or cause me to recognize something about myself or something I should pray for family or friends in the midst of my daily activities. I was focused on blogging about MS, but it’s obvious I must steer this in another direction because I want to be a source of encouragement, but there is only so much I can address without sounding like “Debbie Downer,” so now I’ll add life observations, situations, challenges how my faith makes a difference in approaching those factors.
In reading other blogs, I have a concern with reader responses and more specifically blog-following individuals who fail to use or recognize their pre-existing Common Sense Filter prior to responding to a blogger’s post. A friend’s blog addressed her struggles with her children who both have autism and somehow a reader thought they had the “right” to stand in superior judgement of why it’s my friend’s fault that her kids have autism. Really? Yes. This foolish person had the audacity to blame my friend for her children’s autism, but it was humbling to see this “expert” had the time to preach and condemn my friend! My hope is that last statement in Italics reeked of my second language, sarcasm, in which I am exceptionally fluent and when life provides a plethora of material for me to work with, it’d be a shame to waste my “gift.”
To the autism expert, if my friend is that lacking in your obviously perfected level of parenting autistic children, you might consider offering helpful suggestions rather than judgement. In John 8, Jesus sees a massive crowd looking to stone a woman for adultery and the crowd is essentially waiting for Jesus’s permission to begin stoning the woman, when instead, he says to the crowd who are ready with rocks in hand, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” The crowd dispersed and when only the woman and Jesus remained, He said to her, “Neither will I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
The parallel is that it is so easy for strangers like you to anonymously respond and judge, without any clue as to how life could be living with any number of life-altering conditions like autism. Please consider that parenting is challenging enough on its own, so I can only imagine how even more challenging to add a disability to the equation and then also challenging are hecklers like you only screaming, “You’re doing it wrong!!,” instead of offering helpful guidance. Parenting is an ongoing learning process. Remember the saying, “You catch flies better with honey than vinegar.” Perhaps in the future, you should research, write a draft but don’t post it, read it a day or two later, take your own inventory and reflect on whether the immaturity, judgmental and hurtful rhetoric was necessary opposed to the help that you clearly failed to convey. I suspect, during that time of reflection, your eyes may be opened and that is where the Common Sense Filter kicks in and instead of posting another harshly inappropriate response, you hit delete.
I hope that you recognize your response to my friend was unquestionably out of line. That said, I’ve finally arrived at my point for this post about grace, which is to show mercy, favor. God shows us grace on a daily basis and because of that, I believe that you responded emotionally, instead of rationally. That is grace. You did nothing to offend me personally, but because I saw that there was that missing element of common sense for you, I hope you’ll apologize to my friend, although forgiveness actually requires no confession from you in order for her to forgive you. My prayer is that she will forgive and never give your actions another thought. Grace. The exercise of love, kindness, mercy or serve another.
I had an experience at a party. An individual asked me a question that ranked in tackiness up there with, “How much money do you make?” I was shocked that they obviously felt like the question was appropriate to ask a stranger, let alone okay to ask at all. There was zero hesitation or “filter” on their part. The next morning, as I considered the question, I was reminded of another experience while in our home-town, in a small group. I was a stranger in a group of believers. Being new, I shared my testimony. Testimonies are personal and are never debatable because they are so personal and involve personal experiences or events that ultimately lead individuals to make the choice to follow Christ.
One individual saw my testimony as opportunity to anoint themselves as my judge and jury. The individual was immature and even more immature in their faith. Not one person questioned them when sharing their own testimony that included failed marriage, but apparently like myself, there are many who value their Common Sense Filters that may prevent them from saying something inappropriate. I forgave the individual’s ignorance, but I’m ashamed to admit that nearly ten years later with the recent situation and being asked such a personal question, I felt on the defensive. I replied, “Enough.” That feeling was from the enemy because I had no reason to feel protective or defensive. However, the individual accepted the enemy’s temptation to be a nosy-Nellie and I gave them grace. The following morning, I told my husband what this person asked and my husband said, “That was very inappropriate, but that’s where we have to give them grace.” I am in no way patting myself on the back because I am also a work in progress on the road of following Christ. Instead of responding to them in an equally rude way, I gave the person grace in a brief response, but have also kept them consistently in prayer because the individual is immature, but more important, they are a newer believer and my actions may be influential. Grace.
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Cats + Dogs = MS Therapy
Posted by crusaderjennblog in Faith, Faith in the Midst of Illness, Living with MS, Living with Multiple Sclerosis, MS Fight Club, Relapsing Remitting, Relapsing Remitting MS, Therapeutic House-pets, Women with MS on November 12, 2013
I’ll attempt to explain how much my little soldiers have provided such an extraordinarily high level of support throughout my battle with the MonSter. My husband had his dog Ima when we married and I wanted a cat, so we made an agreement that when we bought a house, I would find a cat. Within a few days of moving into our home, our cat (who I named Goliath) was featured in the local newspaper as a pet of the week with the humane society. Ima and Goliath began our “collection” of domestic pets in 1997, but the following photo comprises Team Anderson Christmas ’12:
We were at our first home for four years, where our brood grew to four male cats and two female dogs. It was September 2001 when we purchased our next home, from my now late Grandparents. It was bigger and it was equipped with Air-Conditioning, something we came to discover was going to be necessary in order for me to function at optimum performance (at least during summer) with MS. The new home also came with a large garden window in which all the boys loved to perch where they had a very clear view of wildlife entertainment. Our suburban “wildlife” was a variety of birds, the backyard Koi pond and an abundance of squirrels found in the several massive Evergreen trees in the neighborhood.
While MS was becoming an issue at work, my husband had quietly begun the task of obtaining information for the filing for disability. He was more proactive than I was with that because he stood back and observed while I began recognizing that the number of “good” days at work were diminishing, and then further recognized that my remaining active days at work were limited. At night after work, I had mentioned that I might consider resigning from the credit union. My direct manager and the HR manager were already aware that I have MS, so my husband and I developed a tentative exit strategy while I was still gainfully employed so that I could obtain what I believed would be “short-term disability-pay.”
My last day at work was during mid-October. That day, I got settled at my desk for my day, but I had a bad feeling and felt, “off” while I fought mentally for the next hour while I analyzed my WIP loan files (Works-In-Progress). I tried to work while I determined if I should go home for the day and when I didn’t locate my manager, I sent her an email explaining I needed to leave and would see her tomorrow. I was a silly girl for being so optimistic because I woke the next day with vertigo and slowly made my way to the family room where I parked myself on the sofa and equipped myself with my Bible, a notebook and the TV remote on the off-chance I could pay attention for longer than five seconds.
I always found it amusing how much all of our house pets were attuned to my health, like when earlier in the year, our area experienced an earthquake, but long before it occurred, I woke with severe vertigo and called in to work that I would not make it in that day. The day of the earthquake, I was also lying on the sofa surrounded either on the sofa or close-by on the floor, by our brood, when about seven minutes before the actual earth quake, the pups both started pacing/running back and forth from the front of the house to the back and the cats who were awake became skittish. At work the next day, everyone thought I knew of the impending earthquake. I am not now, nor have I ever been clairvoyant. However, as our bodies are 75% water, I believe that the pending earthquake shook-up my equilibrium during my sleep cycle and caused me to wake with vertigo.
The many days with vertigo were always made easier by the cuddling and unconditional loves provided by the company of one of our brood of creatures. If you haven’t experienced such relationships, head to the Humane Society where a loving critter, who is anxious to find a “forever-family,” is available. Almost 17 years of marriage and we’ve adopted 11 critters, two of whom were in the original clan of pets. The loss a family member is always difficult and people sometimes forget that pets are part of our family. In nearly two decades, we’ve said good-bye to five pets due to terminal illness. The cost of pet care isn’t the issue, but the consideration of pets not being able to understand why the people who are supposed to care for them allow them to be poked and prodded by needles for IV’s, is something that my husband and I see as inhumane. That is our personal conviction. The loss never becomes easier, although, with time, our thankfulness that God allowed us to temporarily become “parents” for one of his individual creations is a tremendous blessing. Pets are never alike, but they become whatever their environment allows and one thing has become excessively clear that all of the creatures in our brood are indulged with an abundance of love, care and play. If it isn’t clear upon how friendly they are when meeting them and the assumption that all strangers are provided for their amusement, then the delicate softness of the pads of their feet shall affirm everything.
If you don’t have a four-legged critter and do not have any allergies that allergy-shots can help control, then please consider locating and taking a jaunt to your local ASPCA shelter: http://www.aspca.org/adopt/shelters
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Beginning MS
Posted by crusaderjennblog in Faith, Faith in the Midst of Illness, Living with MS, Living with Multiple Sclerosis, MS, MS Fight Club, Multiple Sclerosis, Nervous System, Neurological Conditions, Relapsing Remitting, Women with MS on October 24, 2013
The symptoms that led up to my diagnosis in October ’94 were short-lived as they lasted only a several weeks and subsided before winter in December. That first glimpse of MS was minor in comparison with the diversified MS related issues I experienced later and will address in future posts.
In ’94, stress was not something that I controlled successfully, but the following several months were uneventful and then ’96 was a fantastic year because late August, I met my husband. During early dating, he shared some news about a childhood friend who was diagnosed with MS and as I had not yet shared my own diagnosis, I determined God presented the opportunity and I utilized it. I related my situation and his reaction could not have been more ambiguous, which I mentally assumed indicated I would not hear from him again, which was fine as I liked him, but there were no deep feelings involved and I was content with my job at the bank.
God had other plans because we continued dating and then within only weeks of my “MS news,” he became more serious. I still was not convinced that he was settled with my news and I declined his proposal six weeks into our courtship. (My Mom’s cousins who are sisters both have MS and I did not know the older sister well, but the family was aware of her husband’s reputation prior to her MS complications related passing), so in my mind, I was protecting myself from future hurt. I explained this to soon-to-be-husband and also that because of MS, I was afraid to have children so I would not be in his way to have a family. He was a tad upset when he explained that he fell in love with me because of my strength, my faith and my sense of humor. He also explained that he didn’t want to marry MS, but he wanted to, “Marry a beautiful woman, who happened to have MS.” [Everyone sigh, “Awww!”] And proposal attempt number two was accepted.
He planned the wedding and reception. No, he did not suggest anything like beer-pong or peanuts on the reception tables, but before he planned anything he asked if I would rather have a house or a big wedding. Duh! A house! So we chose to do a small wedding with only family in attendance and bought a house six months later. I was relieved of wedding planning stress, but buying our first house brought on MS flare-up number two during July 1997. I saw my neurologist shortly after moving and he prescribed my first interferon drug for injection.
Stress-induced symptoms had returned with numbness replaying the role of Symptom Leader, prior to and during our move with moving day being the worst. Moving in 80 degree heat was challenging enough, but what I discovered further into summer is that heat is fine, but it was the humidity component on moving day that had changed everything. I can function well in 80 degree heat and single digit humidity. Less than 40% humidity presented hiccups in my strength and coordination, but exceed 75% and I am rendered useless so praise God for air-conditioning!
Not everyone with MS has the same experience so there is a massive learning curve for all of us MS patients. In trying various treatments, I discovered MS is entirely individual because what worked for others was not successful for me. I mentioned earlier that just like varying symptoms, there are several treatment options, which will also be addressed in future posts.
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