Pastor Jeremy Stephens

The other day, after sending out my post about the Multiple Sclerosis ride I’m participating in soon, I received this response from a friend of ours who suffers from the disease.  I thought that sharing it with you would help give a glimpse into the life of someone who struggles with it daily:

Jeremy, I want to thank you personally from the bottom of my heart, for taking the time to participate in this ride.  The training that you do helps build strong, healthy muscles and aids you in maintaining your endurance throughout this ride.  I am sure that during the course of your training you have felt a burning-type or fatigue-type pain in the muscles of your legs?  Welcome to a very small part of the MS world.  That is a very similar pain that many MS patients suffer with daily, including myself.  Another symptom of MS that you can probably relate to is very similar to having a really bad sunburn.  Unfortunately with this disease it strikes without warning.  MS knows no boundries…it can attack at the snap of a finger or one can wake up in the morning finding themselves paralyzed in any one limb or their entire body, or wake up blind, etc.

I don’t know if Kim told you or not, but I’ve been having a pretty bad flare-up of my MS for the last 2 1/2 months.  My last flare-up was 4 years ago, so I am doing well as far as flare-ups are concerned.  I had an MRI done last week and I am so happy to tell you both that it showed no disease progression!!  In fact, my MRI looks just like the one taken over 15 years ago which is when I was actually diagnosed!!  I had to pull myself out of work the last week and a half in order to let my body calm down and focus on just me… I just went back to work yesterday.  I am so very thankful to God that he has protected me all these years. Unlike many people with MS, I am one of the fortunate ones that can still walk…it is a struggle right now, but none-the-less I’m still walking.

Ok, so let me jump down (yeah right..lol!) off my pedestal and just say to you….RIDE, JEREMY, RIDE!  RIDE FOR THE CURE THAT WILL END THE DEVASATING EFFECTS OF MS!!!  You are one of my heros…God Bless You!!

If you would like to help in the fight against MS, please consider making a donation to my ride!