Personal Stories: Tammy
I am involved in the MS community because I have MS. I was diagnosed the day after Christmas in 2010. Unfortunately, I have failed so many MS therapies over the past five years that I am now left without anything to protect my brain and/or spinal cord from future lesions. At this point, I am just taking maintenance medications to ease the MS symptoms.
MS is often times a very lonely disease. Some of us have amazing support systems and receive so much love...yet, when we are lying in bed and cannot function because of the painful MS symptoms, we are alone. We don’t necessarily suffer in silence but many times there’s nothing anyone can do about helping alleviate the pain. I have also found many people who have MS have a push-pull association with our support systems. We could have a great week and be communicative with everyone and then have a bad week and just push everyone away. MS is a part of me, whether I like it or not. But if I can help others by sharing my story and how I am able to find joy in the smallest of things, I will do so because of MS and not in spite of it.
I have an entire year’s worth of articles that have been or will be published by “American Quilter” magazine in 2016. Each of my articles focuses on topics that have meaning to me – the most recent being about making quilt blocks for multiple sclerosis.
I encourage anyone with MS to have a hobby that they are passionate about. Quilt therapy has been my passion for over 30 years. I used to say that quilt therapy is cheaper than traditional therapy but that is no longer the case! LOL When I can immerse myself into quilting, I can usually take my mind off of the pain of MS to focus it on sewing quilt blocks and putting quilts together. I design quilts, too, and I just recently designed a very original quilt block for a quilt group that makes quilts to raise money and awareness for MS research as well as groups who provide financial assistance for MS tests and procedures for those who meet their financial guidelines. I named my quilt block “MS Pillars of Strength” (See photo above). The pattern for the quilt block is free and can be found at Quilttherapy.com.
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