Multiple Sclerosis – Your Own Private Hiroshima

Sixty-five years ago this weekend, atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At 8:16 AM on August 6, 1945, a bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” exploded over Hiroshima, leading to the eventual death of 120,000 human beings. Three days later, a bomb called “Fat Man” wreaked similar havoc upon Nagasaki. Though the destructive effects of the atomic bombs were limited to the confines of those two cities, they ushered mankind into a frightening new age, and for the residents of planet Earth, things would never be the same again.

Those of us who have received a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, or any other potentially devastating illness, have suffered through our own very personal versions of Hiroshima. Not to minimize the horrific effects of the atom bomb, which literally vaporized tens of thousands of human beings and created never before imagined levels of destruction on the ground, being given a serious diagnosis has an A-bomb effect on the life and emotions the patient hearing the news. There is the blast-like shock of the sudden confirmation that something has gone terribly wrong with your body, the firestorm of searing fear about what an abruptly uncertain future might hold, and the unknown implications of the long-term effects of the illness, much like the silent but lethal radiation that plagued the survivors of the initial atomic attacks.

Similar to the residents of Hiroshima, who lived in a city that had somehow been spared the horrors of a war that had thus far kept its distance but of which they were nevertheless acutely aware (the city had been left untouched by the Allies so that a pristine target would be available for the first A-bomb), many MS patients suspect that their bodies are betraying them long before being given an actual diagnosis. Most MS patients, myself included, experience strange physical symptoms for years before the disease finally outs itself enough to be picked up by medical diagnostics.

Continue reading from the Wheelchair Kamikaze blog

Share |

Visit our MS Learning Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/msviewsandnews