My Thanks to Selma, a Fellow MSer

Finally, I see myself represented (in a loose, squint your eyes kinda way) in Hollywood!

I’m talking about the gorgeous Selma Blair, actress and fellow MSer, at the 91st Academy Awards, otherwise known as the 2019 Oscars.  There, Selma posed in a lovely rainbow dress with her walking aid – a diamond-encrusted cane – on full show.

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Much has been written about the fact that Selma was diagnosed with MS in August 2018, about how her diagnosis was a ‘relief’ after many years of symptoms.  I don’t really feel like I have very much to add to that, but I just wanted to mention just how emotional watching her very raw and real interview with Good Morning America was.  I have a brilliant group of MS and chronic illness friends online, all of whom I have met after starting this blog.  But I still don’t see them in my everyday life, to discuss symptoms with and to sympathise with.  At home, in the small town where I live, I still feel like I am the ‘odd’ one out, as someone who can’t go out to all the things that her friends can, due to her chronic illness and its symptoms getting in the way.

The interview:

Of course, I am seeing Selma on the red carpet, not walking down my high street!  But seeing someone roughly my age with a mobility aid in the media has really impacted on me, in a positive way.

Multiple Sclerosis is a ‘snowflake disease’ – symptoms can look very different from one person to another – and much of it is invisible.  Most of my symptoms – fatigue, word-finding, pain, cramp, stiffness – are invisible. But I also have very visible difficulties, namely lack of hair from treatment and a spastic gait.  I am used to using my mobility aids now, a mobility scooter and two crutches, but they took me a looong time to come to terms with.  I wonder – if I had seen Selma or more people like her when I first needed to use my mobility aids – would it have made me feel more confident?  My gut says, ‘yes’.  So often we only see the invisible side to MS, so Selma’s very real interview – with speech difficulties and having help to walk – really reflected some of my personal difficulties.

Until you see someone who ‘looks’ like you do, you don’t realise how much you miss it.  I am just sorry that Selma also has to deal with this rotten disease, and it is a shame that we need to see someone right in the middle of a flare up to show others how MS can truly affect us at times!  The reality is that Selma got dressed up and put make-up on for the Oscars and her Good Morning America interview, so I guessing that even she doesn’t look so put together when at home with her son and dealing with a relapse.  Thinking of this makes me feel better, when I am sitting here, still in my jammies at 12:14pm 🙂

I don’t really have too much more to say – just a big thank you to Selma to representing me and for speaking so openly and in such a relatable way about the realities of MS.  I have had MS for almost 25 years and to finally have a person in the media who represents ‘me’ and is going through the same things that I am, means a lot.

Till next time