What a difference a year makes!

Today I visited Dr.Hunter for my regular follow up. I am approaching the one year anniversary of my diagnosis. This was the first time in a year that I have not had to have a steroid infusion following a visit! What I was told was that while my symptoms point toward a relapse, I could hold off with steroid infusion right now. It is great to get good news. I am feeling great and getting acquainted with my new job. It is really amazing what a difference a year makes!

Please join us in raising awareness for a cure!

Dear Friends and Family,

Fall is around the corner and I’m gearing up for the 2011 Walk MS Paducah to benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. I will walk to help end the devastating effects of MS and I am asking you to join me by making a contribution to support my effort.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is dedicated to a world free of MS. They simultaneously fund research for a cure while also helping people who currently live with MS lead more fulfilling lives. There are more than 4,500 people in Kentucky and Southeast Indiana living with MS. I’m walking to make sure the Kentucky-Southeast Indiana Chapter can continue to offer programs each year for people living with MS and their families. I’m walking to help fund research into the cause and cure for MS. I’m walking for those people with MS who can no longer walk. I’m walking because I care.

Please help by making a donation - large or small - to fight MS. Or, why not join me on the day of the event? Become a participant and side by side, as teammates, we can work together to raise the funds to make a difference.

Please help me reach my goal by sponsoring me in the Walk MS and help the National MS Society reach the ultimate goal of a world free of MS.

Sincerely,
MeganStorey

Visit my Participant Center and make a secure, online donation today!

Join Me as a participant in the Walk MS and start making a difference!

To send a donation: Make all checks payable to: National MS SocietyMail to: MeganStoreyP.O. Box 303 78 Elsey StBardwell, KY42023

  

 

A Little Bit Stronger

I was thinking today as Aaron and I were playing in a couples golf tournament where I was a year ago. I do those kind of things from time to time and then it dawned on me.... Today, my life is 100 percent better than it was a year ago! We know what my ailment is and how to control it and now we know what I can and can't do (which isn't much!). The fact that I can play golf for two days is a big improvement! I have to say that I do get pretty tired but the point is I can live life and that is something to be thankful for each and everyday. I hope that others who are experiencing what I am going through are able to find something that helps them enjoy life. That is what helps get me through! I am able to "witness" so to speak to a few others with MS from time to time and keeping a positive attitude and finding happiness is what I try to help them with as well. I praise God for these opportunities.

Reversal of Destiny

In my last post, I made the comment that I wanted to focus on making memories with my family this summer. Now that the summer is nearly over, I wanted to share a few pictures of just that. Last weekend we had the pleasure of taking Jordan and some of his friends to play in the Babe Ruth 15U State Tournament. We took in a Louisville Bats game while we were there. I was so thankful for a healthy weekend so that I could enjoy the time with Aaron and all of the boys. I know that there won't be many more years that Jordan wants us to hang out with him!
Last week I found out that I will be joining the faculty at Paducah Middle School as a Reading Teacher. I am so excited for this new opportunity. I have been finishing the Beth Moore Esther study over the past couple of weeks and during one of the sessions, Beth talked about reversal of destiny. She refers to this as a time in which you are headstrong on a path that you think is right and that is the path for you until God puts the breaks on and turns it around. I think that is just what has happened to me over the past year.  My life has been turned around, and around again more than once when I thought I was on the right path!  This all goes to show that God is always in the pilot's seat! I have felt very good throughout the summer, but everyday I am still learning my limits. Heat is hard on MS patients so I have learned to listen to my body and slow down when I need to.

I am so excited to embark on the next chapter of my career which coincidentally has reunited me with two really great friends from my past. I didn't even know either of them worked there until I was hired! Looking back over the past three months I have never known more than I do right now that faith in God is what it takes to make it through the storms.

Life isn't always beautiful...

I came across the song which is the title of this blog just the other day. It is funny how a song can have different meanings at different times in life. I have to admit that I wasn't a huge fan of that song when it first rolled around but the other day when I listened to it again I thought about how much meaning that song has to my life now. As the song goes life knocks you down sometimes... And I have certainly been knocked down! Many of you who follow me know that I have been on the job hunt this summer. It has not been easy let me say! I know through my struggles this summer that God does everything to humble us. I have learned this summer that when one door is closed there will be another opened in some form or fashion. I am learning patience and prayer work best for me. I have felt very good over the past month and have spent lots of time with my children. My vision continues to bother me but nothing that I can't handle. The most important thing that I am learning through all of this life change that I have experienced over the past few months is that while life isn't always beautiful, it IS a beautiful ride. All of my experiences are and will continue to make me stronger!

Life Before.....

It is finally summer vacation and I am TRYING hard to rest. I have a couple of weeks off and then I will be doing Kentucky Reading Project for the last two weeks of June. I am very excited about this and I am looking forward to it. I will also be hosting a book club  for 4th and 5th grade students through 4-H for a week in July. I am excited to be supporting summer reading. That was such a big part of my life as a child and my own children's lives. 

While Lyndsey and I were sitting in the living room this week, she was emptying her camera of hundreds of pictures and she came across a picture of she and me from Labor Day 2010. I could tell how much she had changed and matured this year, but I didn't want her to know that! What she said was "Here is a picture of you and me before you were sick." Now, we all know that I had MS then too, but I asked her if I looked different now, I needed to know! She said "No, but it was just different then."
I know that this has changed me, physically and emotionally, but I don't think anyone ever thinks much about how it changes a family.  Until this year, I have never missed an event that one of my children were a part of,  now I have to usually get the recap from Aaron. Many evenings I am too tired to go, and if you knew me "when" you know how much that bothers me. 

Labor Day 2010

Labor Day 2010

Summer break is going to be not just a good time to rest, but hopefully a good time to make more memories.

In the face of the storm

As most of you know, I took some time off after my hospital stay in April. Our doctor had suggested the rest of the year however I had other plans and promptly let him know that didn't work for me! I started back on half days for about a week and a half and then back to full days. It was tough at first, but each day I have 23 pairs of eyes looking at me and that is better than any injection or pill that they could ask me to take. When I am with my students I don't have to think about the fact that I can't feel my arm or that my leg feels like it weighs a thousand pounds. All I have to think about is what they need from me. 
This year has been special from the beginning. I looked at my roster and realized that out of 22 kids, I had already had 17 of them in 2nd grade.  That was just in my homeroom.  I already knew these kids! I guess that is where the part about things happening for a reason comes in, early in the year, when we knew something wasn't right with me, I knew that this group was going to pull together with me.  We overcame my initial diagnosis and my short little hospital stay and we were raring to go to finish out the school year. Then we were hit with tragedy again. On May 16, there was a bus accident involving 1st and 2nd grade students who were on an A.R. trip. We lost a student during that accident and had several others including teachers injured. Stress magnifies my symptoms and makes me feel worse in general. I could have taken the rest of the week off to stay rested but I knew in my heart that my students needed me to explain this and make it ok for them. While it was physically and emotionally draining, I worked through that week drying tears and supporting my co-workers who were heros in the accident. 
I thought I was weak, I thought that  this disability might have gotten the best of me, but I realized over the past week that I am still the same girl that I was before who would spring into action to solve a crisis when needed and that was what my students needed.  I will miss this group when they move on in the fall.
And now, I promise to rest......in the summer!