Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Full Moon(s)

Full Moons have many different names based on culture, season, farmers chores, etc. This full Moon is probably best known as Flower Full Moon. But I’ve added a name to the list; MS Awareness Full Moon. This full Moon recognizes medical scientists, researchers, and donators.

Interestingly this year; May starts and ends with a full Moon. MS awareness month gets a rare double whammy. Bookended by full Moons and that second full Moon is also known as a rare blue Moon.

In Canada, May is MS awareness month – it’s also my birth month (I’m full of Bull). I’m about to turn seventy one years old. Twenty nine of those years were / are living with this disease – almost half of my life.

The very first medication (Betaseron) for MS was approved by the FDA in the USA in 1993 and two years later approved in Canada. Manitoba, the province where I was living at that time, did not add that medication to the Manitoba formulary until the late 1990’s. That was after a pilot test which I was lucky enough to be a participant in.

I was taught how to inject the medication which I did every second day. Part of the pilot was my requirement to complete a large questionnaire every month for the duration of the pilot. A large part of that questionnaire was about my mental health. I found it strange that those kinds of questions were being asked. I was newly diagnosed and was just beginning to understand what MS was and what MS did.

Some of the questions were if I had considered taking my own life. Basically; did the drug itself or any other reason change my thoughts to consider that as a solution. The answer to that was and currently is no. However the medication I take today does elicit a feeling of anxiety for up to twenty four hours after injecting.

If Betaseron was not available back then I’m 99.9% sure I would not be alive today. And if I was alive; I’m not sure I’d want to be. Quality of life is a very important ingredient in how I want to live. I’m a firm believer in my right to live and or when to die. Multiple Sclerosis can make a body a very difficult place to inhabit.

I can remember a recent conversation with my neurologist and it went along the lines as to say “you’ve made it this far”. That is an incredibly accurate and deeply insightful emotional statement. There was really nothing else she could have done. Getting “this far” was, as good as it gets. And I could tell she was proud that we had navigated through this together. Back when she told me I had to change my diet, lose weight, and exercise – I listened. I committed to ashtanga yoga, changed my diet resulting in a weight loss of thirty pounds. But ashtanga also changed how I view myself and move though life – for sure a subtle but profound transformation.

Today there are over twenty different kinds of Disease Modifying Therapies (DMT’s) for MS. They don’t cure MS they slow it down. There are injectable’s, infusions, and oral versions of these DMT’s.

My life with Multiple Sclerosis and MS awareness month is about all the above and much much more. It’s deeply entrenched in the possibilities.

Research is largely supported by donations. If it’s within your capacity there’s over 2.9 million MS’ers worldwide plus family and friends whom would be grateful for your donations to help resolve this disease. There are MS Societies, organizations, and events throughout the world that support and provide MS research funding.

At the beginning I said I’m just short of seventy one years old and I’m still here – I love it here. And since diagnosis I’ve WALKED two daughters down the aisle, gained four awesome grandkids, changed my preference from sunset to sunrise, and connected to a universe where all is possible.

What more could I ask for;

oh yeah, a cure.

I remain optimistic.

Ahimsa