coping strategies

[sparky912]

Hi all, i am currently waiting for results of my mri and i was just wondering what other people  who have been or are going through this stage did to help them cope with the worry and waiting. i am asking this because i am trying to keep myself busy but have started even dreaming about things.
thanks

[sparky912]

I'm sorry to hear that you are fighting cancer as well as MS. Your reply really struck a cord with me i can't imagine the difficulties that you are going through yet despite that you still sound really positive. I have never meditated before but i think that i will give it a try hopefully it will bring me some inner peace.
I really hope things work out for you, you will be in my prayers.

Claudette

[HVAC]

Anything suggested is easier said than done. What I wish I had know was is Neurologists generally work slow. In my case they knew it was MS from my first MRI in 2007 and I was not diagnosed until 2009. If you can have your symptoms managed at all that is key. I thought once i was diagnosed the Doctors would kick into high gear to do something and besides being offered Copaxone nothing in my treatment changes. In fact I see the MS Specialist once a year for a quick once over.

Also needless worry over any medical condition only causes stress and hurts us. I use meditation to keep calmer. I am now facing bigger stakes with a bad cancer on top of MS.

I learned that most bad things for me are in the future. Michael J. Foxx says worrying makes you live through the bad moments twice. A friend said nothing she ever worries about ever happen other things do but not what she worries about. It is the dread I build into things. I dreaded a surgery I just had where they took a great deal of me out. I imagined great pain. Really I have only had gas pain, which is not fun but I have needed no pain medications since I got home. I could also freak out about how sick I may get on Chemo but why?

I try to stay in the moment and distract myself. I have rewards planned. For the end of the MS Diagnosis it was a hot air balloon ride and camping in the Shennadoah Valley. For the Cancer it is getting back to riding horses, a trip to Europe, going up in a byplane, zip lining.

You can't willfully block thoughts but you can distract yourself with others. I keep photo which make me happy and I leaf through them and I smile and then I feel better before I know it.

Basically things happen when they happen.

Good luck.

Alex