Through a chain of links from fellow WordPress bloggers, I came across this site, www.butyoudontlooksick.com, and read an incredible story about what it is like living with a chronic illness. This story is told to better explain what life is like of the ill to those who are healthy.
I have Multiple Sclerosis
On belay. Clear Creek Canyon CO
My recent diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis has turned my world completely upside-down. At least now, though, I have an explanation as to why I have been feeling this way for over a year. Before the symptoms started, I was a VERY active person. An extremist, to be honest. Anything for the adrenaline rush was fine by me. Rock climbing was my passion, and the higher the climb, the better. Looking down on trees, boulders, people and cities in the distance that resembled a miniature model world was the BEST! Hanging hundreds of feet above the ground, making one move at a time by using just my fingertips crimping on a half-inch protruding flake, or jamming my hand in a crack; sometimes there was only a nub available to use as a toe hold, and sometimes there were no nubs – only the pressure exerted at the proper angle with the hopes that my shoes special Vibram© climbing rubber would not fail me. Then, when a hand hold fails, or that foot slips, to catch the air only to be stopped by bottoming out on a rope being held by my climbing partner. Ahhhh… the adrenaline rush which would course through my body penetrating every fiber, every cell, is unlike anything else in the world.
Then it all came to a screeching halt.
