Melanie Callahan

“Do The Next Right Thing” is a motto for movement. There is power in forward motion, but sometimes “right” can look like a lot of different things. Your “right” may be someone else’s “wrong”. You have to be okay with that. I was diagnosed with MS when I was 22 years old…that means I have lived with it for 28 years. More time with an illness-than I had without it. I haven’t ever dwelled upon the diagnosis. I just tried to do the next right thing-sometimes that’s steroids, sometimes that’s short-term disability, sometimes it’s lasers, and other times it’s simply rest. Sometimes it is a trip to the beach. I walk all the time. The neighbors probably think I’m nuts-rain, snow, ice, bra/no bra, pajama pants, or weighted vest-I just have to go. My daughter comes along on many of the walks. We have incredible conversations. I am grateful-in each moment- to be walking and talking so long after a diagnosis which has shut down both of those abilities in the past. My mobility, speech, vision, endurance have all been attacked by lesions on my brain and in my spinal cord. Yet, I have always been restored. There is no cure for MS. It breaks my heart for those who suffer-and for their families and caregivers. I believe that I’m being healed-slowly and through healthy-living and blind faith, but until there IS a cure-I’ll just keep doing the next right thing.