World MS Day 2025: Early Diagnosis after 200 days
"To many, life with MS can seem like a book where letters have been replaced by numbers or where the cover can be too hard or too soft for its content. Because of this, I don’t want them to see what MS can turn into. I refuse to show them that there is no cure, I refuse to give them a reason to give up on me. In my view, it is very much a case of the illness being mine, but the tragedy theirs if I let them."
Then & now
"Following that, I hit writer’s block faster than you can say ‘ABC’. That writer's block has reached the 'XYZ' stage, so I'm nearing a muse that sounds, tastes and smells like coffee. Starbucks. Where I am funnily always full of ideas. Away from notebooks and pens, I scrapped another item from my bucket list in September."
Conversations with myself
Nevertheless, positivity, when faced with chronic illness, is not a cure. It never will be. That doesn’t mean I can’t slander myself, right? Hitting the nerve, as it were. If my central nervous system is allowed to hit me, I am as authorised to hit back. Three times over.
disABILITY
© Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2016. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner are strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Raw
Social media often finds me catching my breath because of its reach, its intent and its questioning behaviour towards the mindset of the people they follow. After tweeting about the content of my blog, I received a rather ignorant private message from someone asking how raw my content, or I, can get and if I wanted to elaborate. On my blog, ‘raw’ is A Powerful Letter to My MS; Death, A Fearful Thing?; Waiting and My Brother. These were pivotal words that had to be written from an emotional perspective as learning to accept a chronic illness sometimes comes with letting go of life as you once knew it. Others say that Let’s Be Frank; Ignorance; and Hope Cures Old Wounds are realistic enough to prove that life with a…
Man up!
“The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure... you are above everything distressing.” (Baruch Spinoza)
Oh, snap!
"Also, because of the long, warm summer days, Uhthoff's Symptoms, also referred to as Phenomenon or heat sensitivity, means that I am rather slow in the upstairs department, which eventually lead to predicament B. My days are unquestionably not dull nor tranquil, so."
