I’m David Spero RN. I have been a nurse for 35 years and have lived with multiple sclerosis for 25 years. I am writing about self-care and healing, the social dimensions of illness, and especially about reasons to live. I’ve written books about self-care and the politics of diabetes, which you can see on my main web site.
I’ll be posting new pieces most Fridays. I look forward to your comments. Please send questions and ideas, and I will consider publishing your short work as well.
David, I forgot to post a comment: I like your premise of self-care and pro-active support. Also, writing is integral to my own life and limitations, especially as they made one-on-one-an unrewarding experience for me, at one time. But I see how creativity rescues me from stasis. Though it is only this ennui which has let me sit still long enough to think these thoughts and email them to you. Best wishes, Mary
David, thank you for providing this opportunity to say something positive in the face of so much pain and suffering. I live one day at a time with daily episodes of total exhaustion, but I have not stopped living. I have a tendency to worry about all that I can’t do, but people looking at my life are amazed at all that I do do. They don’t see the hours I spend completely lifeless on the sofa. They only see that during the hours I am functional, I provide services that enrich the lives of others. I feel that indirectly I make it possible for so much to be accomplished through all those that I encourage to be all they can be. I will never know the extent to which what I say becomes the root of creation through many channels. For this I am grateful.
Sara, I can relate to your life. I have spent the last 12 years living with this fatigue. It started shortly after I started taking Lipitor and before my diagnoses of diabetes. I have recently worked with a doctor to improve my diabetes and am now off all medication. My level of fatigue has improved from a 3 to a 6.5, by my own thinking. I am grateful to be able to inspire people, even though they don’t realize the effort it takes me to rise and shine. All this time, I thought I was the only one with this problem. You’ve made me feel less alone. Thank You,
Thanks, David, for your writings. I’m 57 yrs., can’t walk for very long and use a scooter around the house. I don’t know how I found your site, but I am glad I did. Keep up the good work.
David, you should look at my new book “Light and Recovery,” and here’s the link:
http://www.blurb.com/books/2383947
If you have difficulty reading the foreword and introduction, send me your email address and I’ll attach them as Word files.
David, as someone who is part of our family, though not related – so glad you are in our lives. Even though it’s been many years since we saw you, it seems like yesterday when reading your work and inspiring blog. Thank you – from your family in Buffalo and Baltimore, Debbie, Tracy and Stephen L!
I’ve been a nurse since 1980 and have lived with MS since 1992. I’ve been cancer-free for 2 years now (metastatic melanoma). I’ve been reading your blog and some of your books, and I enjoy your articulate writing. I continue to work in a hospital and as I approach 58 this month on the 18th, and looking back , as I also look forward, I want to see with fresh, new eyes and alive heart. A mentor , a bodhisattva, a counselor, I hope for, and seek.
I enjoy and appreciate your blog. Thanks for sharing your journey with MS. I share mine at MS with a Southern Accent.
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I am also a person who lives with MS, to day was not a great day. I woke up and went out to my living room and just started to cry. I have been living with this condition for over 21 years now. Yes there have been good and not so good times during the last 21 years. But this morning I just felt lost, I can no longer do the physical things I could do 2 years ago. It just makes me sad. So turn on computer and look up “Having MS and feeling overwhelmed”. Up comes more than one thing to look at but I picked “David’s site” I think there are reasons for everything that happens. I will be getting your book for myself and a young friend who just has been diagnosed. Your book will help us both. Thank-you from the bottom of my heart for the sharing you are doing because it does make a difference. Tracy from Vancouver Canada
Hi, Tracy, I hope the books help. For most people, MS just gets more challenging as it goes along. Archbishop Desmond Tutu says that all those challenges open the way to greater joy. I think he’s right, but it’s a hard road.
Hi David,
In am involved with research regarding hydration of the human body. My wife was ill for 14 years with undiagnosable burning in her abdominal cavity and was given an ever increasing regime of pain and related medications on a daily basis, so much so that she was dehydrated most of the time. I, being her only caregiver, and still working, was not able to monitor her hydration habits but it was obvious that they were inadequate. One of my sons and I collaborated on an idea to provide her with a wearable, obvious reminder for her to hydrate each day, record each action and receive positive reinforcement for the actions taken. Although the wristband we provided her with did the job quite well for the last two years of her life, it was not as refined as our current version. My son and I have personally worn our Hydration bands for over a year, the one time cost of which can fit almost any ones budget!
We would like to provide you with some samples of our Hydration Wristband for your evaluation and comments regarding their ability to serve the Diabetic community’s requirement. Please provide a mailing address for this purpose.
David, a link to your article about bitter melon led me to your site. How refreshing! Thank you so much for sharing the health information and the inspiring quotes. They will be used in my own journey but also, be shared with others I meet along the path.
Hello David,
I happened across your article and I enjoyed hearing my own voice in your words from the Love Life, Don’t Poison it. I live with MS and I am rural, in the heart of farmland, in SE South Dakota. I try to leave a small imprint while practicing, albeit small, steps towards more self-sufficiency. The Agribusiness from our neighboring state owns the land around us and no longer uses a crop-duster plane. The helicopter now comes as the semi truck, full of chemicals, parks on our minimum maintenance road. I watch from the kitchen window as it goes back and forth a couple hundred yards away over the fields, hovering back over the semi as someone reloads the poison. It is law that we have no rights to ask anything about this process. This human with MS, the chickens, the dog, the mini-donkeys, we don’t have a right to know when they’re coming or what they are applying. We are left to bask in the waif of chemicals when, whomever was hired to do this job for the agribusiness that profits from owning farmland, leaves. Agribusinesses are not “farmers”. It is a corporate, big money business and they are not poor. Also note around here if your semi tanker full of yearly amounts of hog confinement manure accidentally spills in the river and fish die, they will charge you a dollar a dead fish that is found that day in penalty. That’s it. I have sad stories of the actual truth to what is happening in my beautiful rural world right now. Without a change to conserving nature over profit, very soon only stories will be left. Stories of what used to be here at one time, farmers and families. They’re few and far between anymore.
Blessings to you and your readers.