Thursday, September 19, 2019

Effort 24 – No Time for MS


For 30 days, I will share the joys, pains, and dirty little secrets of my life with multiple sclerosis. My goal is to find a reason to convince you to support/share my fight against MS. Please donate today: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/eleanor.

This is Effort Number 24…

I wanted to tell you 30 stories in 30 days.
[But you already missed one day – September 13. You can’t do 30 stories in 30 days…]
Technically, Mister Smart Ass Inside Voice, I still could. All I have to do is two stories in one day.
[Oh! I didn’t think of that.]
Can I just get back to my story, please?
[Sure. Sorry.]

Where was I?
I wanted to tell you 30 stories in 30 days. I normally wait until the date to post before I write my blog, maybe the night before. Sometimes, my creativity flows better with the, “if you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute,” mindset. I’ll sit down in the morning and pull an idea I feel is worth some time to share. Perhaps my inspiration will come when I’m sweating in the gym.

Neither one of those happened today. From the moment I woke up until the time I went to the gym, my mind was overwhelmed with fundraising and planning for my next NEVER STOP NEVER QUIT project. I was so engrossed in minutia I almost missed my 10 AM appointment – my first session with a personal trainer from Specialty Athletic Training.

After I wore my body out during the assessment of how much my body could actually do, I returned home for some fundraising follow-up, meeting with a new potential sponsor, additional fundraising outreach, preparations for next Saturday’s MS Gala, then responding to outreaches regarding my books.

10:15 rolled around and I realized that after spending all day fighting MS, I gave myself no time to talk about the devastating effects of this disease.

I’m Grateful
It has been a while since I did not spend a good portion of my day trying to figure out how I will overcome some of the challenges my MS shoves in front of me. It’s been nice to have a day solely dedicated to making progress in this fight. Part of me hopes more days like this are my future.

I’m Sad
It has been a while since I’ve had a day where absolutely nothing else was accomplished because everything was about multiple sclerosis. It doesn’t matter if it’s MS in general, or the issue is specifically my MS. When days like these occur, I blink and they are over. Nothing else gets accomplished and I go to bed feeling like I have wasted more precious time. Part of me hopes there are no more days like this in my future.

And, if you’re counting, I’m more sad than grateful. 58/42%, by my best calculation. I have neither time nor tolerance for all things MS-related. Tomorrow, I will focus on returning to balance — whatever that is…

I hope the stories will inspire your donation to my fight.

Because it is a fight.
The fight is not over and it won’t be over until a cure is found.
It will never stop…nor will we
It will never quit…nor will we
This is why we ride!

100% of the royalties earned from my books go to the National MS Society, to support our fight: http://neverstopneverquit.com/books

Never Stop… Never Quit…®
Kevin Byrne
Portland, OR

Never Stop… Never Quit… Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.


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