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Feeling A Different Kind Of Survivor Guilt
I have a chronic illness, one that can terrible effects on people sometimes, meaning they end up unable to walk, and have to rely on using a walking stick, or even wheelchair instead.
That chronic illness is Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and while I certainly relied on using a walking stick when I was first diagnosed with this illness, I only rarely needed a wheelchair, and now I don’t even need either of my walking sticks …
The medication I am now using is working well for me, and I am able to walk for reasonable distances, and even though I fall over more often than most people might, I can usually get up again, and keep on moving. (except for the time in 2019 I fell over and broke my ankle, of course!)
People who have MS are more likely than the general population to fall over, that is true, and I’ve had quite a few falls up to the time I was diagnosed in 2010, and after. None really recently though. I’m actually able to walk for a kilometre and a half or more without needing to hang on to anything or sit down, just walking like anyone else would.
And even though I know a fall is always possible, I feel quite ‘normal’ at the moment, and have done for years. (Apart from that broken ankle, that was strange, tripping and falling over nothing at all …) So feeling ‘normal’ even though I have this…
