I’m newly diagnosed but I’ve been having symptoms for four years, so it’s a relief to know I’m not going mad! The last couple of days have been relatively tough. I’ve been having speech problems and difficulty finding my words. I took a phone call from a nurse this morning (work related) and she asked after some long pauses and a few ‘uhms’ and ‘ers’ whether I was having a stroke. I embarrassingly replied ‘no, I’m fine, I just have MS’. I’m so worried about sounding like an idiot that it just keeps falling out my mouth.
I don’t remember ever being told by other people (who aren’t friends) about their conditions in casual conversation. My boyfriend said he wants to get me a badge - ‘Ask me about my MS?’ or ‘Ask me how my MS relates to your thing?’. He’s joking and we both have a good laugh about it, he’s been really supportive.
I guess it’s a personal decision, some people are more private than others and I’ve always been a ‘sharer’, wear my heart on my sleeve sort of person. And I don’t say it to get sympathetic looks. Just wondered about others feelings on this?
I talk to anyone about anything. It’s fairly obvious looking at me that I’m disabled - the wheelchair gives that away - and if people ask, I’ll tell them about MS. Quite often I get patronising ‘oh you poor thing, you’re so brave’ stupid comments back (how would they know I’m brave - they don’t know how much I whinge and whine at home!) But if they’re open and honest, I’m quite happy to compare my ‘thing’ with their ‘thing’.
But that’s women for you, I suspect men chat to anyone about sport, cars, general carp, but say nothing personal. Women on the other hand, don’t just talk about handbags and make-up, they share much more personal information about themselves. I know this is a massive generalisation, but I know my husband chats away to anyone, he’s got a big group of blokes at the gym. They talk about everything, and yet when I ask questions, he usually says ‘oh I didn’t ask that’!
You might find that as MS becomes a more ‘normal’ thing in your life, that you aren’t thinking about it so much, so you talk about it less. Or not.
If there’s anything you need to talk about, just come on here, we’ll talk about your MS as compared to our MS till the cows come home. So to speak. Oh, and welcome to the forum.