National Multiple Sclerosis Week. My Story.

2010 March 8

by Michael Barber

If you’re my friend on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, you have probably noticed the big orange letters and black stripe on my profile image. They are there to show my support for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s MS Awareness Week. One of the cornerstones of the Awareness Week campaign is to share your story. Here’s mine.

My Story is My Dad.

My Dad has been diagnosed with MS for the better part of the last decade. Like many MS sufferers, his symptoms began with numbness in different parts of his body. After ignoring the issues for months, he went temporarily blind one afternoon. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was suffering from one of the tell tale symptoms of MS, optical neuritis. An MRI or two later doctors delivered the diagnosis of relapsing remitting MS.

Since then my Dad has really been a trooper for the most part. He changed his diet, starting working out, lost 50 pounds, quit smoking cigarettes (he still regularly indulges in a cigar) and gained a whole new perspective on life. Yes, the disease has taken its toll. He walks around with a cane these days. He bought a Segway to get around the house and I spent the better part of two weeks wheeling him around the cobbled streets of Italy. But, I suppose this all comes with the territory.

You have to understand the Barber men a little more to know that being diagnosed with anything is devastating. We hate being sick, we hate pain and over dramatize it and we love sympathy. So he soaks up as much sympathy as people will dish out, but I have to give it to him. For the most part, he has taken the diagnosis in stride and done everything he can to fight the disease including travelling to Costa Rica to receive experimental stem cell treatment.

He received that treatment less than a month ago and is already seeing dramatic improvement including hot and cold sensations in his hands and feet, something he hasn’t experienced in 5+ years. He even got a common cold last week which is actually good news. It means his immune system is normalizing.

While it is generally good news for my Dad, there are thousands of people suffering from MS that aren’t so lucky. Many of them have more aggressive forms of the disease or haven’t been as lucky to receive the cutting edge treatments that my Dad has pursued. If for nothing else, MS Awareness week aims to help those individuals and bring a larger light to this life-altering disease.