Hello Joyce, well, the painting was done during MS, but before I was terribly affected by it. I could say that the dark stormy background was maybe somehow indicative of my state of mind at the time, but I still have an inclination for dark, stormy backgrounds, although this one, which I am just starting work on, does have the sun appearing above the clouds:
CPn Help/?q=sarahs_illustrated_blog_0
I did say somewhere in the Regimens section, over eighteen months ago, in reply to someone's question, that I didn't think I had MS any more. Now I think I will answer in a slightly more grown up way:
I can certainly say that I have had no MS event since starting treatment, but have only improved. This improvement was sometimes a bit up and down, in the two steps forward, one step back mode, but with my diagnosis by one of the Addenbroke's chaps, I should only be getting steadily worse, in fact so rapidly that I shouldn't be here now, writing this, let alone disturbing David all the neighbours with bashing together three large stretcher frames for my next paintings. But when can I feasibly say that I no longer have MS? Some days, in some situations, I still walk as though I do, at other times I can look completely normal. I still have many visible lesions in my brain, but all except the very oldest ones are fading, gradually becoming smaller, not getting larger and more profuse.
I guess that I can say I no longer have MS, but "authority," something I have never had much respect for, would say differently. If I filled in a form for travel insurance, say, if I ignored the MS diagnosis and I had to claim for something, not MS related at all, I would have the claim rejected, never mind the fact that I have never, ever had to claim for anything. In fact, I am so certain in my own mind that I don't have the disease any longer that if not for the fact that I feel the need to guide people through the CPn maze until the exit is clearly visible, I wouldn't be still writing on ThisisMS or CPn Help.
Sarah
