(In Mayuri’s own words)
My name is Mayuri Tandon, and I had my first MS attack way back in 1997. Then I was just a 25-year-old girl with a 9-month-old boy to take care of. Obviously, it was devastating, and I did not know what to do. Since the internet had just come up, I started googling a lot, only to find later that it scares more than it helps.
Nevertheless, as a veteran MSP, I can simply say that the sooner we start taking care of ourselves, the better it is for us.
My advice to our young MS warriors is that if you have been diagnosed early, that means more time for you to help yourself. Start your day with a SMILE and simple breathing exercises like Pranayam, which can be done even in bed.
Never over-exert yourself, and pls be very easy on yourself.
Pranayam may not take MS away, but it surely will keep you away from stress and anxiety, which is more stressful than MS itself.
It will be a lot easier if we start to accept our disease and take measures to deal with it.
I personally started to get used to my disease, and I did a very strange thing which really worked for me. I started thanking god for giving me only MS coz I could have gotten cancer or any other permanent disease. That was actually a way of fooling my body that it’s ok to be happy with just one bad thing coz it could’ve been worse than MS. Trust me, friends, it really worked. It was my way of managing my MS and incorporating the management proverb of ‘Make it or Fake it’.
To add to all this, I took the brave and best decision of my life to have another child despite having MS. So after my doctors go ahead, I had my wonderful daughter in 2000, and I feel that was the best decision of my life.
It was no easy task for sure, but by doing this, slowly I accepted my MS, and I was ok if I had to rest for a few days. Gradually, when I accepted the uncertainties, I started to move with it. I started to travel more within the city first, then to my native state more often. Slowly, I got more confident, and I keep enjoying my travels. Now I look forward to travelling more and more. In fact, it keeps me going.
Another interesting thing that I have also started is learning a new language to keep my brain active. And here technology helps me. Because one day I feel good and another day I don’t feel good so it’s very difficult to hire someone to teach me, so I took help from ChatGPT, which runs at my space.
So these r my suggestions and tricks of living with MS and beating up MS. Hope other friends can take advantage of it too.
Because once we accept it, we can focus more on treating it.
We can make a few changes in our day-to-day life and start living with MS. By doing it we can always change Multiple Sclerosis into being Most Special.
