An Unwanted Glimpse of Tomorrow

I'm in a crowded room. The air isn't stifling, but it does have an odor I'm not familiar with. I see wheelchairs, some electric, some not. I see walkers and canes. I even see strollers. All of these items are typical sights of an MS meeting. I'd never been to one before, but I knew the day was coming when I could no longer avoid them. I was always afraid of these meetings. Once a family has seen what a loved one may have in store as their MS progresses, it is a sight you can never forget. The varying ways in human transportation was just some of the equipment individuals needed to get around. The strollers belonged to the support systems of some of the people suffering from MS.

It was awe-inspiring to see husbands, daughters, sons, and grandchildren there to support their particularly disease-afflicted loved one. I had never been to one of these big meetings before, mostly because I don't like big crowds of sick people. But more to the point, I don't acknowledge that my mother is sick. We've been aware of her condition for ten years now. She’s been on Avonex, which is just one of the drugs used to treat MS, for all ten years.

Ever since she's learned of the disease and of these meetings, she has made numerous attempts at attending one—and for many times before now, I was successful in talking her out of going.

I never wanted her to attend one single meeting, simply because I never wanted her to see what may be a potential existence for her. I mean, what would you do if you saw people who were ranging from 25 to 54 using wheel-chairs, canes, walkers, or in one man's case, a computer to speak for them? This is a depressing sight to finally behold. It’s similar to a full-of-life older family member being put into a rest home, and after six months they can barely bring themselves to get out of bed when you come for a visit.

The specialists and doctors that spoke were very encouraging, and were very crowd pleasing. And when I say crowd pleasing, I mean that they didn’t add to anyone’s burdens by announcing drug recalls, bad side affects of current drugs, or anything negative you would expect before attending the meeting. Yet, the greatest inspiration I took from this meeting was that my mother stayed unchanged by what she had seen. I had the greatest fear that an event like this would take the life right out of her. I ‘m glad I was wrong about these meetings. Even though I’m not making any plans to attend another.