12.28.16 Sweet 16

Today’s my day.  It’s my Sweet 16.  This journey has been anything but “sweet.”  For sure!  I cannot believe that I’ve been fighting this battle for 16 years!  I can’t believe that the fight has been THIS brutal!  If someone would have told me that it would be THIS bad, I wouldn’t have believed them.  Who can handle this?!

The answer to this aforementioned question is – ME.  I’ve asked my Mom SO many times, “Why?”  I don’t know the answer to this question but I know I am not alone in this fight.  SO MANY people are fighting this battle also.  They are fighting their own battle simultaneously to me and this battle is fought inside their own body.  The only casualty in this brutal battle is ourselves.

This battle is invisible to other people but that does NOT make it any LESS painful!  Rather, it is MORE painful because no one can see it.  We are not making this up or crying wolf!  So my battle has been going on for 16 years and even though I know there are many people who have been fighting this battle longer than I have, I don’t want to diminish my fight.

Sweet 16 parties to me have been marked with pink “frilly” decorations, friends, family, and a beautiful dress.  My day is not marked with these things; rather, it’s marked by losses, inabilities, and hardship.  I don’t want to spend time enumerating all the difficulties that are faced every single day.  My fellow MS fighters know the fight all too well.

For my MS Sweet 16, I pray for an ease to these terrible symptoms for myself and everyone in this fight; I pray for the strength to endure these symptoms if they are not to ease just yet; and mostly, I pray for and would LOVE a cure for this really mean disease!  That would be SWEET!