Health column: Not letting multiple scleroris define me

By Mary Occhino

(This column first appeared on Syfy.com as part of the “Mary Knows Best”  reality series web page.)

What I’m about to tell many of my new friends and viewers may come as a complete shock to some of you because when you see me on TV you see a woman who doesn’t stay still and is less than quiet. But to others who have already read one of my three books (which in all of my books I discuss how my medical condition actually enhanced my psychic ability) are very aware that I’ve had my share of health problems and concerns.

What health problems am I speaking of? Or I should say, what health problem did the universe see fit to gift me with in order to teach me life lessons I was ignoring prior to my diagnosis? My friends, I have and live with Multiple Sclerosis.

I was diagnosed with MS in 1992 and was housebound for close to 8 years and was totally disabled. So much so that I was deemed unable to work by the Social Security Administration and was told I would be disabled for the rest of my life. Boy, did I prove everyone wrong and in a big way!

Just how did I overcome MS? The first step was by never allowing anyone including myself to allow MS define who Mary Occhino is. The second step was by never giving up on a healthier future. And most importantly, by listening to my body and firing any doctor who wouldn’t listen to me when I said what I was feeling!

I overcame what most of my friends and family believed would be a life behind the four walls of my home by listening to my intuition. An intuition that told me what was good for me to eat and what wasn’t.

I overcame my fear of not being able to stand longer than 2 minutes at a time, by meditation along with conventional medication as well as homeopathic meds. And most importantly I sought out the best doctor I could find, (which doesn’t always mean the most expensive!)

But, in order to get back the independent life I once knew and allow the remedies, which the doctors had ordered for me to work, I first had to own the person I wanted to be again. I had to see myself healthy again and believe that there would be a tomorrow where I would be able to live an unassisted life again.

I visualized a tomorrow where I would be able to walk again and most importantly a tomorrow where people didn’t look at me with sadness and sorrow for my confinement.

So, for those of you who take your good health for granted …as you read this column whisper to yourself and to the universe, “thank you!”

For those of you who may have a chronic ailment presently and feel as though your life can never be better than it is today … wash that thought away from your mind immediately and in its place see and own these words:

“What you see you shall become!”

Because if you can’t see you well, you won’t be! And if you’re like I was: sick and tired of being sick and tired! Then work your backside off by first listening to your body and finding the best doctors who will listen to your symptoms, complaints and don’t take NO as an answer from anyone ever if they tell you there’s no hope for the future, because where there is life there is hope. And where’s there’s hope, you too can overcome any obstacle.

I wish you good health and the wisdom to be grateful for it! Many blessings and I’m still counting my blessings every day!

Mary Occhino … I may have MS but MS doesn’t have me!



18 Responses to “Health column: Not letting multiple scleroris define me”

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