My speech from the 2016 MS Evening of Hope.

Good evening

Who here is angry at multiple sclerosis for what it has taken away from you? Who here is angry at multiple sclerosis for what it has taken away from your partner? I sure am.   Multiple sclerosis has taken things from me practically my whole life. My father had multiple sclerosis as well as three of my aunts.  I’d like to share with you a few of the ways multiple sclerosis impacted and is still impacting my life.

For those of you who don't know me, or don't remember, my name is Rudy Yanuck. I am a 49-year-old retired pathologist, the 2010 Gateway Area Chapter’s Father of the Year, a U.S. Navy veteran, and a 22 year survivor of multiple sclerosis.  

I am angry at multiple sclerosis for taking away my destiny, My dream of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. I am angry at multiple sclerosis for taking away my ability to run, then gradually over time, my ability to walk, and my balance. I am angry at multiple sclerosis for forcing me into early disability retirement at age 45, sooner than I had anticipated.

 I am angry at multiple sclerosis for taking away my ability to do the common household tasks and minor household repairs I used to do, such as cutting the grass, vacuuming, shoveling snow, and even opening string cheese packets.  Pretty much the only things that multiple sclerosis has not taken from me are my kids and my hair.

   

Who here is grateful for multiple sclerosis? I know you're saying grateful for multiple sclerosis? How can anyone be grateful for such a debilitating disease? Being grateful is having hope, you know, the thing with feathers.

I am grateful for multiple sclerosis for the gifts multiple sclerosis has given me, aside from the obvious, great parking and never standing in line at amusement parks.

I am grateful for multiple sclerosis that it’s just multiple sclerosis. This chronic disease, as debilitating as it can be at times, will not take my life, though it can make it miserable as hell.  To quote Richard Cohen, CBS producer, husband of Meredith Vieira formerly of the View and the Today show,  and fellow MS survivor, ”A troubled life is better than no life at all.”

I am grateful that multiple sclerosis took away my chosen career, my destiny. MS has given me the gift of time, time to be at home with my family. If it weren’t for MS, I would have been a slave to the hospital and my job.

Thanks to multiple sclerosis, I have spent every night in my own bed since the summer of 1994. As a result, I am a proud father, living the dream that most fathers, most parents, wish they could live. I am a full time at home dad getting to spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week raising my five children.

I am grateful to multiple sclerosis for the family, friends, and the multitude of strangers that have offered help when I do one of my frequent “gravity checks”.

I am grateful to have had a father with multiple sclerosis who showed me that life does not end with the diagnosis.  One can have a fruitful, joyous, long life in spite of multiple sclerosis.

This is by no means a complete list.

My friends, Nothing is ever all good or all bad. Even with multiple sclerosis, one has the ability to find bright spots, hope, things for which to be thankful and grateful.

I challenge you. Tonight or tomorrow or sometime this week, write a list. Actually, write two lists. For the first list, write down what you are angry at multiple sclerosis for what it has taken from you. For the second list, write down what you are grateful for thanks to multiple sclerosis.  Email me your grateful list if you wish. I will use these lists (anonymously of course) in my blog to show others that even with MS one can be grateful and find hope.

People, let’s face it. Multiple sclerosis has given each of us a heaping pile of steaming… lemons. To borrow a saying from Joe Salacki, fellow Gateway Area Chapter member and MS survivor, “it is what it is. It becomes what you make of it”. Friends, let’s take those lemons and make something better than lemonade. Let’s make chocolate milkshakes. Keep hope alive.

Readers I issue the same challenge to you as I did to the Evening of Hope. Write two lists. Send me your grateful list if you wish and I will post them.

rryanuck@gmail.com