Speaking from experience, if you really want to help people get your MSW not a BSW. BSW's can only send people off to nursing homes, tell people of their rights, etc. With an MSW you can counsel after you sit for the LCSW exam. Good luck.

I understand that but it is also slightly different in Canada. I don't necessarily want to counsel, I just want to be able to say I get it.

First, I would like to congatulate you on what appears to be a great understanding of the concept of acceptance. You have really taken this opportunity to grow and decide what will make you feel well in many ways. I think that is wonderful. MS can change paths so much, but it is up to us to do everything we can to make sure those changes are postive in the end.

You seem to have made a decision that will not feel that MS cheated you, but maybe helped you to see a good, yet different path. Sometimes we follow paths for so many reasons, and it takes a while to really look into our hearts to find what will make us feel we have found the right place. So I hope this decision works out so well for you.

i don't have a career path anymore. I lost the ability to do my normal line of work (programming and engineering) when i started having cognitive issues.

I struggle with this at times but over all i stay positive.

right now my "career goals" include playing world of warcraft lol

i'll get there, though. it just takes some time to learn to redefine yourself as living with MS.

I'm always really glad to hear stories about people who haven't lost their cognitive function. congrats to you!

I had lost cognitive functioning, but it has mostly returned. However, my strengths used to be math and science. I would rather have pushed out a calculus exam in two hours, or dissected a rat brain than spend hours and hours writing a 20-30 page paper on something I didn't care about.

Unfortunately because my cognitive functioning has been altered, I don't feel as confident in being able to retrieve formulas or remembering basic constants. Switching programs will allow me to take time on the work I am putting out. It's a lot more paper writing and less testing.

Another reason for deciding not to be a dietitian is that I don't believe I have the mental ability to take all of the extra chemistry courses that are required.

Last year in April of 2009 I finish my BA in Criminal Law and graduated with a 4.0 GPA, my plans was to be a probation office,and continue to be a missonary. One week after I graduated I had a Grandma Seizure, as the days grew hotter I had so many health issues that was taken over my life. I went to the doctor and told her about me losing my bowels after my episode that I had. She sent me right away for a MRI, it was the next day I recieve a call to go to a neruroligist , he told me I cant legally say this with out doing other test, but you are a perfect canditate for someone with MS. I had 28 legions on my brain. Then the spinal and nerve test proved postive. Today I have secondary progressive MS. However, I have found much good out of this, despite my many episodes of flare up and seizures. I work as a minister in two different women correction instution. What they see and hear is not me, but God, that he is my strength in my weakness. So cool that I can do something here on earth before I leave, that makes a difference for eternity. So God does bring good out of a bad circumstance.

Darling, I've had MS for nearly 24 years... I worked 18 years of my life in management and stuck with it all MS stuff and all... Heck, my last solumedrol was infused as I sat at my desk and worked!

Attitude is EVERYTHING! If you are driven and focus on your career, you can DO ANYTHING YOU WANT!!!

Yes, I had a good long career in management, stuck it out through thick and thin for a very long time. When it became too much, I retired at nearly 40... I'm happy I had my career years, and I don't regret that it ended... I look back and smile knowing I HAD A WONDERFUL TIME while I could!! I'm not sad that it's over, I'm GRATEFUL that it happened! xoxoxo Cj (Cindyjo)

Not all of us are going to be able to do whatever we want to do. Some of us will have serious cognitive issues which will make certain things impossible. Others will face physical challenges that make certain choices no-goes (I can't be a ditch digger if I can't lift the shovel. It's clearly an impossibility.) For those who's chosen career paths aren't altered by their disease, that's great but it's not the reality for many of us. For many of us, we will have to be flexible and willing to look at other options that we may not have considered in the past.
I used to work in daycare and I LOVED it. After my initial MS attack, it was obvious that I no longer had the stamina or the physical strength to do that. I went back to college and started over, working from a desk now and I adjusted and loved it. But after several years I made the very difficult choice to leave a high stress but very fullfilling position because the daily stress was affecting my MS in a negative way and my employer was completely unwilling to alter my work load at all. I took a much less responsible position at a new company, only to relapse within the first three months and be fired because I simply couldn't keep up with the pace. That wasn't lack of wanting too, it wasn't lack of trying. It was noted that I had implemented great changes and procedures that they were excited about, but I suddenly couldn't get it all done and they needed it all done. End of story. Most work places can't or won't make accomodations for the unpredictable nature of MS, so sometimes we have to be very creative. I'm now constantly searching for something that fulfills my need to be a real contributor, pays enough to live on and still allows me the flexibility that my disease demands. The other consideration is relationships, and I know there are a lot more options for me if I were to give all my limited resources to a career, but I can't. My relationships are important to me and some of my energy must be reserved for them. It's not how I planned my life or envisioned it, but this is what is. So we adapt and adjust and start again.

Well put, Leesay... We've got to take it as it comes and accept that change is the only way to thrive when you have a chronic disease!
Quitting work was one of the most difficult chooses I've made, but my life not being defined by a career allows me to make very valuable contributions to LIFE that I would not have been able to do otherwise. Life is about so much MORE than a career. I believe MS allowed me to find other ways to make a positive impact on the world. xo Cj

hi

you surely have been through enough misery to fill 100 people's lives, and yet you have a wonderful attitude.

maybe a career in counseling people with disabilities or something like that.

when i was 16 i hurt my back very badly; i knew i would be unreliable because i never knew when i would feel good. so i went into teaching, where i knew i could get tenure, not get fired, and have summeres off. this was attractive to a woman.

so, first i looked at positions that would accommodate my handicaps; course, then i got MS, fibro, so i was real glad i close what i did for a career.

i hope that helps a little.

So far, no. I'm in a desk job, which helps, but it's a very busy, stressful position and I've just been asked/told to take on two new members of staff (and their workloads). That will bring more pressure, but I like a challenge !?
It's great that I'm still achieving, but some days it does feel like it's too much, especially when the leg is playing up or the fatigue hits.
I have no intention of giving up as I have a mortgage to pay. But I am more careful about expending energy while I'm there. I am also considering adapting my sporting commitments to allow me to keep going.
My work is important to me and I will keep going as long as I can. I consider myself lucky that I'm able to do so as I know many others are not in that situation.
I would say find something that you enjoy and that will keep you feeling positive. Then find a way to make it work in your own circumstances.
Good luck to you

I used to be a telephone repairman for Ma Bell. I climbed several poles a day. Now I can barely walk with a cane. My career path changed bigtime!

The way I see it is, you have a choice. You can fell bad for yourself and give up and give in, OR you can get over it and do what you can.

This summer after I was just diagnosed and was unable to walk, completely blind in both eyes, unable to think properly, and unable to feel the majority of my limbs I fell into a huge depression. Every day it got worse, I kept getting worse. Finally one day I refused to get out of bed, to eat, to drink, to speak with anyone. I just wanted to be left alone. My mom looked at me and said "you have 1 day. Today you can lie here and feel sorry for yourself and cry and moan. I will let you have today. Tomorrow you are going to get up and you're going to was your hair. Then you're going sit with everyone and you are going to have breakfast with everyone that cares about you."

That 1 day has become a rule for me now. Now when things seem to be too much for me to handle, I take 1 day and feel sorry for myself and the next day I get up and do what I need to do. No excuses.

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The thing that worries me the most is that I'm no longer smart enough.

I don't know if it is because of MS or it is because I haven't put everything into the work that I could have.

Darling, I have always been an A student... I've taken 10 years of French and studied enormously in my life... you know, the gray matter (brain) does not work the same after 24 years of MS...

That said, I'm still sharp as a tack... Sometimes it takes me a while to find the info in my brain that I know is there... What helps for me is keeping track at Walmart and in the grocery store of EXACTLY what I'm spending IN MY HEAD... I also calculate my exact mileage each month IN MY HEAD...

Who would have thought??? I was never good with math, but MS has helped me to tap into an entire different part of my brain... My Daddio is a mathematician who tutored me in all math courses. FINALLY in my 40s, I'm USING IT to keep SHARP!! xoxoxo Cj

my career path did change, but i think it was for the better. when diagnosed, i had been at the company for 12 years and i was in sales. i enjoyed the people i was working with and those i was working for. after my dx, i moved to an inhouse position in sales before transfering to the main office. i went on for almost 10 more years before retiring. i met some of my best friends there. stay positive, attitude is everything!!!!!!

dave