Thank you, Kerry.
In 2014, my wife was diagnosed with MS, and it took a long time to get there. She had some challenges with vertigo, and nobody realized what it was. She went from specialist to specialist, but when she was diagnosed, we went through emergency, they did a brain scan and then she was diagnosed with MS.
The challenges were the next steps. What were they? There's not a lot of support out there. Thank God for the MS Society and for all the information they provided, but not knowing what tomorrow's going to bring.... For my wife, currently, sometimes when we go to a function, flashing lights set her off. All of a sudden, she feels pain and we have to leave.
A lot of times I really irritate my wife because I call her name out every once in a while. Sometimes she goes into this mode of brain fog. She is not really communicating with me. That's why sometimes I become an irritant, but I'm really concerned about whether she's having an episode.
There are so many unknowns. In terms of the support out there, I hear about a lot of cases. Many people came to our office saying that they can't qualify for disability benefits because they're not really disabled. They're just inconvenienced. I read a lot of these letters and everything else. Do you know what? Unfortunately, we need the definition changed of disability to include episodic disabilities, because the system looks at you and says, “You don't qualify”. These people have to face the unknown by themselves, looking for help and wondering how they support themselves.
Fortunately, we were able to manage and didn't need a second income, but I'm really concerned about the individuals and families who don't have that luxury.
It's about making sure families are strong, making sure that they can be part of the community and not a negative factor for the community, but a positive. We need government help for that.