Life With Multiple Sclerosis part 4

So God is good and that's all I have to say. For someone with a chronic disease of the nervous system that causes weakness and fatigue (affecting mostly my legs) I am so blessed-blessed with an amazing family, school and amazing friends. Also I am super blessed to still be able to play soccer at the collegiate level! My freshman year I started and played every game in the goal. I had a couple days where I thought "Lord, I don't have enough strength to play 90 minutes" but then He would step in and shut-outs would happen. After a pretty successful first year getting 4th place in NCCAA national tournament, something awesome and unexpected happened. It was a few days before I was flying home for Christmas break when my coach called me into his office. He sat me down and informed me that I had been awarded with the NSCAA All America Goalkeeper! What?! Me, a weak, unfaithful, undeserving soccer player from Flagstaff, AZ, an All-American award? Wow, again the only one I could thank and give praise to was the Lord-no where else!

I knew that I had to use this amazing honor to glorify God, and man did I have a ton of opportunities to do so. I live in a pretty liberal town back home, but when they wanted to interview me about my All-American award, I knew I was going to get to share my testimony as well! The article came out and God definitely got all the glory! (the article)http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2007/01/29/news/sports/20070129_sports_28.txt

This year, I got the opportunity to play forward, a position that requires a lot more running than what I am used to. In a few games I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it, but then again the Lord proved me wrong and I was able to get through the games as well as score my 1st collegiate goal- man nothing is impossible for my God!!!

The Lord continues to put people in my life that I have been able to minister to using my testimony, people who encourage me, challenge me and I couldn't be more thankful for those people! I love having the opportunity to share my story, because it is proof that the Lord is always there by our side even in the storms, that He does answer prayer, that He IS our strength when we are weak. I am very excited as well as fearful to what the future looks like for me. I know the Lord has a plan for my life and that He is going to use it to His glory!! So whether I am still walking in 20 years or in a wheelchair- no matter the case I will still praise the name of the Lord and live to bring Him glory in everything I do!!

Life With Multiple Sclerosis part 3

After I was diagnosed I knew my life never would be the same. I was going to have to make some changes in my life. One area was having to be on medicine. In order to slow the progression of the disease, the doctor put me on the newest medicine called Avonex. This meant that I had to give myself a shot in the leg once a week. The shot is intramuscular, so it is about an inch and a quarter- no fun! Even though getting a shot now twice a week, the medicine is working and my body is a responder to it. Like this past year the disease didn't even progress!

The area where things changed was my physical condition. I had to do a lot of research on what MS actually was and how it was going to affect my life. The definition of MS is a chronic, potentially debilitating disease that affects your central nervous system- it causes various symptoms such as weakness, loss of muscle coordination, vision problems, tinglyness, numbness, fatigue and potential wheelchair bound. Major temperature changes, not enough sleep, stress are just a few things that can trigger "bad days". I knew that the heat was going to be an issue now that I was headed to Texas to play soccer. I knew that going to college, I probably wasn't going to be getting the amount of sleep I needed and stress was inevitable.

However, I knew that I was supposed to be going to DBU, so the Lord was going to provide me everything I needed to get through practices, games, school and all the stress that comes with life, so I didn't have to worry.

There have been a lot of confirmations from God that DBU is where I need to be. When I was diagnosed, I was fearful in letting my coach know. After a lot of prayer, my coach emailed me back and instead of telling me that they didn't want me (which is what I was expecting) he told me that I had a teammate (becca) that had MS, and that he already knew all about it and that I had nothing to worry about. Can you say TOTAL GOD THING! What are the chances? I can only point it back to the Lord-and that would continue throughout my college years....

me and Becca -->