As usual, this comes from me.

When we marry, we say better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.

However, unless you know your spouse had Multiple Sclerosis before you chose to get married, most of us got this condition as a test.

Will you live up to your word?  We hope you were in love when you married.  Other conditions might have opened the doors to the Church, however I hope you entered marriage with your eyes and hearts open.

I am eternally in debt to my wife.  She did not sign up for this.  A loving husband who got an auto immune condition that can not be explained by some of the best doctors and scientists.  We have been together for 18 years, 10 of which I have been diagnosed with MS.  She cried when the diagnosis came in.  I did not.  She pushed insurance companies to cover this medicine and that procedure.  I am where I am because I was blessed to be married to her.  Without my wife, life would be a disaster.  Looking back on the inventory of women I dated, I strongly doubt very many of them would still be married to me with my condition and disability.  Bless my wife.

I do not know any of what I am about to type, however I would bet the divorce rate for MS patients is over 50 percent.  Just because people did not expect this when they married is not an excuse for divorce, but I feel it would happen.  Expectations are hard enough in marriage.  Careers succeed or fail, adultery happens, but MS is just awful for the spouse.  No meetings or mediation can really repair the damage.  If the marriage is strong, you have a chance.  What marriage can take the hit of a wheelchair?

Love should be eternal.  I spent my life looking for the woman who I was blessed to marry.  I wanted to grow old with her.  Raise children, build a life.  Not get sick with an autoimmune disorder that is a theory and medications amount to guesswork done in a double blind study.  I know I would have stayed with her, but I do not want to be this kind of burden.

So I fight for the chance to get better and lead to the blessed four letter word: Cure.  Anything I do medically I do with an eye for improvement.  CCSVI made me somewhat better.  Not cured, but improved.

Good luck to those working to CCSVI.  Bless those who have had the procedure.  Let us all work through the puzzle this condition offers.

And bless the spouses who stay, and I understand those who simply could not endure the daily pain.