So when my best friend was diagnosed with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis in November of 2009, I decided to read everything I could get my hands on about the disease. Books were helpful, but I decided I needed to talk with and get to know other people with MS. So I joined a Yahoo email group for people with it, and I learned a lot more. By the time that group fizzled out due to lack of participation, I had, in my view, learned pretty much everything a lay person not in the medical field could learn. I saw a suggested group on Facebook called We're Not Drunk, We Have MS. I also found the Facebook group page for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, and I joined that one too. I joined these groups because, knowing what I knew about MS, I wanted to uplift and inspire people with this debilitating disease. People with MS are prone to bouts of depression and hopelessness. That's where I believed, and still believe, that I could help, and the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation Facebook group was where I first encountered Melanie on a day somewhere around Mid-June as I was checking out my news feed.
Melanie is a very intelligent now-47-year-old woman with RRms. There are at least four types of MS that I know of. Rrms and primary progressive multiple sclerosis, or PPMS, seem to me to be the most common. When RRMS starts progressing, it is then called secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, or SPMS. The other kind that I am familiar with is called progressive relapsing multiple sclerosis, or PRMS. Like relapsing remitting MS, this form of MS is characterized by relapses and remissions, but unlike RRMS, these relapses are quicker to cause damage, hence the progression. It typically takes people with RRMS years to see substantial progression, but in people with this type of MS, as well as people with primary progressive MS, the progression starts very quickly. She also has what's called a cavernous angioma, which is a cluster of abnormally-shaped blood vesselsin this case, in her brainwhich also causes neurological problems, and in her case will lead eventually to total blindness. So on this particular day she had posted about the fact that she would eventually go blind, and that after her diagnosis of MS, her friends had stopped calling and coming around, as though they didn't know what to say or how to act around her anymore, as if she were a completely different person. So I messaged her and told her I was totally blind except for light perception, and I shared with her my experiences with the sighted world, and pointed out ways in which I could relate to her. I told her she could request to be my friend on Facebook.
Through talking to her, exchanging messages and phone numbers, I learned that she is an atheist. She does not believe in God. However, when I told her of a very close relative's health scare, she was right there to assure me that because I believe in God, she would be praying for this family member and for me. A short while thereafter, my best friend requested help from me that I couldn't give him, and feeling guilty about it, I expressed the feeling that I wasn't able to contribute to the happiness or well-being of anyone. It was then that she told me that when she had written that group post, she had been suicidal, and that when I messaged her and told my story, I gave her hope.
When she told me that, all I could do was sit here in this very spot, mouth agape, the phone pressed to my ear very tightly for fear that I would drop it.lol if someone had walked in the house at that particular time, I bthink they would have had me committed to an insane assylum. I was dumbstruck. I don't know how long it took me to finally speak. It was at that point that I truly knew, rather than just thinking, that this was part of my mission. So the reason I am writing this now is that God has put it on my heart to try also to encourage those struggling in their faith. This woman, who does not believe in God, has given me a new outlook, changed for the better the way I see myself, and given me new ways to apply my faith. She has been, by human standards, a most unlikely dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. God's ways are not our ways, and though I started out wanting to uplift and inspire those with MS, she and Ray continue to uplift and encourage me. So I encourage you, my readers, to remember that nothing is impossible for God. In the book of Romans it is written that all things work for the good of all who fear the Lord, for his glory, and I believe that this story is proof positive that this is the truth.
Melanie is a very intelligent now-47-year-old woman with RRms. There are at least four types of MS that I know of. Rrms and primary progressive multiple sclerosis, or PPMS, seem to me to be the most common. When RRMS starts progressing, it is then called secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, or SPMS. The other kind that I am familiar with is called progressive relapsing multiple sclerosis, or PRMS. Like relapsing remitting MS, this form of MS is characterized by relapses and remissions, but unlike RRMS, these relapses are quicker to cause damage, hence the progression. It typically takes people with RRMS years to see substantial progression, but in people with this type of MS, as well as people with primary progressive MS, the progression starts very quickly. She also has what's called a cavernous angioma, which is a cluster of abnormally-shaped blood vessels
Through talking to her, exchanging messages and phone numbers, I learned that she is an atheist. She does not believe in God. However, when I told her of a very close relative's health scare, she was right there to assure me that because I believe in God, she would be praying for this family member and for me. A short while thereafter, my best friend requested help from me that I couldn't give him, and feeling guilty about it, I expressed the feeling that I wasn't able to contribute to the happiness or well-being of anyone. It was then that she told me that when she had written that group post, she had been suicidal, and that when I messaged her and told my story, I gave her hope.
When she told me that, all I could do was sit here in this very spot, mouth agape, the phone pressed to my ear very tightly for fear that I would drop it.lol if someone had walked in the house at that particular time, I bthink they would have had me committed to an insane assylum. I was dumbstruck. I don't know how long it took me to finally speak. It was at that point that I truly knew, rather than just thinking, that this was part of my mission. So the reason I am writing this now is that God has put it on my heart to try also to encourage those struggling in their faith. This woman, who does not believe in God, has given me a new outlook, changed for the better the way I see myself, and given me new ways to apply my faith. She has been, by human standards, a most unlikely dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. God's ways are not our ways, and though I started out wanting to uplift and inspire those with MS, she and Ray continue to uplift and encourage me. So I encourage you, my readers, to remember that nothing is impossible for God. In the book of Romans it is written that all things work for the good of all who fear the Lord, for his glory, and I believe that this story is proof positive that this is the truth.
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