It's National MS Awareness week in the US. Here's my contribution to this blog.
Have you ever seen an advertisement that serves to bring awareness to MS. In the USA, the advertisements are tame compared to the in your face advertisements in other countries. So - not much reading today, just looking. Some of the photos are provocative, but it just shows you the lengths that are being taken to bring awareness to this disabling disease.
Multiple Sclerosis interrupts the nerve tracts
With MS, you never know what will expire next...
This Ad is aptly called "Pray"
This is one of my favorite MS ads - it shows a woman sabotaging someone's home. She pours oil on the floor which will cause someone to slip and fall. She puts tacks all over the carpet which will cause the painful pins and needles effect. She loosens one of the light bulbs which will make it more difficult to see. She switches the keys on the keyboard, making typing confusing, she strings a cord across the top of the stairs which will cause who ever is going up to trip, she rubs grease on the lenses of the glasses which would make them impossible to see through, she switches the faucet caps, marking the hot water cold, and the cold water hot. When she hears someone drive up, she runs and hides behind the door, and we look and realize that the person walking into the home is indeed her. It ends
"When you have MS your body becomes your worst enemy"
This is what MS is like, one day you're ok - the next it is as if someone has sabotaged your body. The only thing is it's not an ad.
Some people might think these ads are fear mongering, but it's usually people who dont have MS who think so. "It can't possibly be that bad", "I know someone with MS, they go to work every day", "You look just fine". If only MS could be quickly and easily explained.
If there's one thing you learn quickly, it's that - there's not a lot of time to pay attention to fear mongering, you can choose to fear needles, or you can choose to fear ending up in a wheelchair - choose your fear - or choose not to fear. This is just another day at the MS office. Explaining to someone else what having this illness is like is always too tame :). I never knew how little was known about MS. Honestly, if I didnt have MS, I probably would still be head in the clouds about it. Im glad my head got snatched from the clouds - although I do think there could've been another way to do it!
If there's one thing you learn quickly, it's that - there's not a lot of time to pay attention to fear mongering, you can choose to fear needles, or you can choose to fear ending up in a wheelchair - choose your fear - or choose not to fear. This is just another day at the MS office. Explaining to someone else what having this illness is like is always too tame :). I never knew how little was known about MS. Honestly, if I didnt have MS, I probably would still be head in the clouds about it. Im glad my head got snatched from the clouds - although I do think there could've been another way to do it!
Educate yourself. It's perhaps one of the best gifts you could get and give.
