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Monday, November 24, 2008

In Sickness And In Health

My husband has Multiple Sclerosis. He'd had it for ten years already when we started dating. He had been in a wheelchair for a year when he was with his first wife (who eventually left him because of his MS).

I knew there was a BIG chance that he could end up back in a wheelchair, paralyzed, or that he might even die in a short period of time when I married him. I loved him so much, and he is such a wonderful, caring, loving person, that none of those "negative" things made me hesitate for even a second when he asked me to marry him.

There were times during our first year of marriage when I had to feed him because he was shaking too much to feed himself. I had to help him bathe and, on a few occasions, I had to help him get up after he'd fallen down.

Over ten years have passed and he is healthier now than he was when I met him. In fact, he lives a very normal life and, unless we told people, no one would even realize that he has MS. He says its because of me. I say it's because of his positive attitude. The doctor's told him he was going to die but he couldn't accept that, stayed positive, and lived through something that ended the lives of the nine other men in his support group.

My advice to someone who is married to an individual who is disabled in any way or suffering from a disease or illness is.... LOVE THEM WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART! Make each day a joy. Love can do miracles!

My advice to someone who has been diagnosed with an illness or has suffered a major injury and has been told that they will never be able to live a normal life again... DON'T BELIEVE IT! Once you've given up on yourself, you've closed down any possibility of recovery.

It's not always easy but, if you love each other, it's totally worth every second of every day!

1 comments:

Marc said...

Beautifully said. It takes a special person to provide that kind of care, and a special person to receive it.