Multiple Sclerosis Awareness month occurs in May in Canada but in the US in March and Internationally on May 30. It’s sort of like how our Thanksgiving is different from the American Thanksgiving.
I’d love to hear from bloggers outside of Canada and the US if you have a Multiple Sclerosis Month.
Multiple Sclerosis, or MS, is a disease of the central nervous system that can cause symptoms throughout the body ranging from difficulty walking to bladder dysfunction to changes in memory and thinking abilities.
MS attacks parts of a person’s brain and spinal cord. Typical symptoms are extreme fatigue, visual and sensory problems, disequilibrium. Eventually, loss of muscle control leads to paralysis. Besides providing a bullet point explanation of the disease the site gives loads of information on research currently being on the disease. It’s fascinating on what is being done from drugs to prevent relapse, to repairing nerve cells damaged by MS.
For more on MS visit mscanada.ca (make sure you scroll down and head to their new homepage.)
In my novel, Not by Design, Felicity Starr is dumped by the man she is about to marry when he learns of her Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis. Felicity finds her life thrust into unexpected turns. As she confronts the on-going challenges presented by her disease, she gains the strength to let go of old beliefs and face her inner truths. Love, friendship and rewarding work come in different forms and Felicity finds it all in ways she never imagined – in a life that’s not by design.
I realize that my knowledge of the disease is scant and that I’ve portrayed just a very small part of what it is like to be diagnosed with MS. If my perception of MS leans towards optimism it is only because the young men and women I met inflicted with MS showed courage, strength and optimism themselves in living with MS.
I hope that my novel raises awareness of multiple sclerosis and would love to hear from people who suffer from MS.
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Carol Balawyder 