S8E26: Culture, community and MS with Kebba Jow

Kebba F Jow (00:00)

My culture, growing up from West Africa and being diagnosed with MS and knowing that I have to take Western medicine.

My culture frowns against Western medicine. And that problem I had in 2002 when I got diagnosed, I had to fly back home to break the news to my parents that, hey, well, the doctors in America say I have MS. I got blind in one eye from optic neuritis. So when I had that, I went back home and I told my parents that, well, the doctors say in America I have MS. What is that? And I told them, they’re like, you know what son?

 

Overcoming MS (01:12)

Welcome to the latest edition of the Living Well With MS podcast. Joining me on this edition is Kebba Jow, originally from Gambia, West Africa, now living in Atlanta, Georgia for the last 30 years. Keba is a motivational speaker, MS advocate and author of the memoir, Why Me? What Now? After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, his life was turned upside down, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

He went from feeling strong and capable to questioning everything about his identity and purpose. But through the pain, he found something deeper. He found his voice. So welcome to the podcast, Kebba.

 

Kebba F Jow (01:46)

Thank you, Geoff. Thank you for having me. It’s my pleasure being here.

 

Overcoming MS (01:49)

And to start off with, could you introduce yourself and tell us what your life looked like before your MS diagnosis and how the diagnosis changed everything?

 

Kebba F Jow (01:59)

Man, so I’m Kebbah Jow. I’m 51 years old. I’m an author, proud MS warrior and I’ve had MS for 24 years. I got diagnosed in 2002. You know, my life prior to MS, I used to be a basketball player. So back home, I was a big time ball player. That’s what I was known for.

Every year I’ll bring my trophies, basketball awards, what not. Everybody else in the house, they’ll bring their, education, prizes, what not. But I’ll bring mine. But my uncle used to always tell me, forget basketball and focus on your education because that’s never gonna leave you. Basketball’s gonna leave you one day. And he was right. 2002, I got diagnosed with MS at 27. I was very, very active.

Having MS, MS really changed how I move, how I appear in the world. It just didn’t affect my nervous system, affected everything. Emotionally, physically, just knowing that things are different. Now I gotta walk with the cane. And the cane didn’t come to like, I’ll say, I started using the cane in 2019, so that was like 17, 18 years after being diagnosed. So those parts, having to adjust to that was a big deal. I couldn’t accept using a cane. And I always have it next to me. This became my enemy. But after a while I started to see the cane differently. The cane didn’t represent what I lost. it just showed what I had in me. My determination to keep moving on with life. I’m not the same as I used to be. I’m not as strong as I used to be. I’m not emotionally there like I used to be. Because having a disability, the mental battles you deal with.

People looking at me, people pitying me. I’m ashamed. I don’t want nobody to feel sorry for me. I’ve I wrote in my memoir, there was times I went out with my wife and I just froze at the door because everyone turned around to look who’s coming to do. But in my mind, the mental battles by using a cane, I’m thinking, okay, wow.

This cane is a problem. Everybody’s looking at me. And I froze right then and then. And I just said to God, do not let me fall in here, this old restaurant. I’m six foot five. Falling here is gonna be embarrassing. And those were very emotional. And when I walked over to my wife’s table, I cried because the toll was so much on me.

It was already hard accepting the cane, walking with the cane, but the way people reacted to me, it wasn’t negative in their eyes, but for someone like me that could do everything I could think of, that took a lot.

Me talking to a therapist just to overcome that fear, that embarrassment. I mean, it’s not even embarrassment, but in my mind, that’s how I saw it. Because now I’m so, I don’t even want to go out. You know, we get invited to functions and I tell my wife, you know what? I’ll make an excuse. My knee hurt so bad, I can’t go. And she understands sometimes. I’m like, she like, I’ll stay, I’m not going. I said, no, no, you gotta go.

 

The emotional part, that is the biggest part. Physical, I could deal with a little bit, but just the way people looked at me, the way that I thought they view me as this weak person,

So now, when I go around talking to people about, these issues, these mental issues, these battles we have that no one sees, I’ll go to the doctor and, we’ll talk, but these are battles, that science cannot see these things. And then you can attest to this. What I go through and what you go through is totally different.

Every patient has a different view or has a different story. So I just tell them, hey, look, I’ve had to talk to a therapist. But then after a while, I had to accept that, you know what? This cane doesn’t represent that I’m weak. It represents survival. It represents that, I just don’t want to sit. I’m going to keep living life the best way I can, even if it’s one step at a time. And that’s how I look at it.

 

Overcoming MS (06:06)

So what does living well with MS mean to you now compared to when you were first diagnosed? Has that changed?

 

Kebba F Jow (06:13)

Well, now, if I want to answer that, take life as it is right now, because I can’t change anything. I got to live in the present moment. So now, living well means eating right. Exercise, that’s the main thing. I always say keep moving.

That’s my mentality, keep moving. I’m not gonna stay put because if I stay put, the disease wins. That’s what he wants me to do. And another main thing for me is positivity. Have positive people around you. I’m married with three daughters, so having these people around me, my family watches everything I eat. You know, our diet is very strict. You have to watch everything we eat. So sometimes I’ll cheat. No, guess what? My wife makes my plate.

My daughters will make my plate. They’ll make everyone a great plate, but that’ll bring me all this gluten free stuff I need to eat. know, stay away from the sugars, the cakes and all that stuff. I love those things. We all love those things, but you get to a point. Living well means living the right way. Stay away from the hospital. You know, in between treatments, I don’t want to take steroids because I have a flare up. So what does that mean? Live right, eat right and have the positive people around you. That’s what really matters.

 

Overcoming MS (07:20)

And so why do you think that, you sort of said about the healthcare side of it, because I think they’re very much centered on physical, they’re looking at lesions, they’re looking at blood tests, all these things. So why is the mental health side of it such a big part of our journey, a quite chronic illness journey? And why do you think healthcare providers often overlook that?

 

Kebba F Jow (07:42)

Because the thing is, they can’t see it. So what I say is, I’m the bridge between the illness and healthcare. I’m living the disease. Yes, I come take the medicine, but when I take the medicine, I have to worry about what tomorrow’s gonna look like. Am I gonna be able to walk tomorrow? Am I gonna have pain? Will I be able to sleep?

I’m up at 2am because of the side effects. And these are the mental battles. Even when I go to my doctor, I’m like, okay, look, I’m going through these things mentally.

The physical is visible, but the mental battles I deal with, So me going to the doctor telling them, these are issues that we go through that you guys don’t understand. What can you do to help us? So recently they gave me some medication for anxiety, is Lexapro. I’m not a big fan of medicine and you we get through all this because my culture, growing up from West Africa and being diagnosed with MS and knowing that I have to take Western medicine.

My culture frowns against Western medicine. And that problem I had in 2002, to take you, when I got diagnosed, I had to fly back home to break the news to my parents that, hey, well, the doctors in America say I have MS. I got blind in one eye from optic neuritis. So when I had that, I went back home and I told my parents that, Well, the doctors say in America I have MS. What is that? And I told them, they’re like, you know what son?

Jump, let me see. And I’m like, very athletic, I jumped. They’re like, wait, run to the wall and come back. I did that. He’s like, let me tell you something. Whatever you do, do not touch that Western medicine. It’s designed to kill you.

I didn’t do it. I didn’t touch the medicine. Came back to America. But then I’ve already taken the steroids to restore my eyesight and calm down the inflammation. That’s another mental battle.

 

Cultural aspect. Daddy said, don’t take the medicine. Not taking the medicine gave me this. Gave me the cane. Because I’ve seen people that have MS. That’s the center I go to. Everybody’s fine. But MS attacks people differently.

Gave me this. Years and years and years I refused to take the medicine. But because mentally I’m programmed not to do it. And my doctors here didn’t understand that. So that just shows you. And I told him, and finally he said, you know what, you cannot depend on cultural beliefs. Medicine helps. I know you don’t want to do this, but it helps. But like I said, I’m programmed.

My culture says do not touch it. And I recall it, I’ve got it in my memory too when my mom came and she was living with us in 2004 when I got diagnosed in 2002. Finally they said, okay, you gotta start taking the shots. I’ll start taking the shots. I was hiding from my mom so she wouldn’t see me. I was so scared to take the first shot. And when I did it.

You know, the burning sensation that I screamed so loud and she came out and she saw what I was doing and she fell out to the floor and started crying. You went away from what your grandfather, your grandmom, your parents told you, don’t touch the Western medicine. Here you are injecting yourself. I had no choice. I had no choice, you know, I had to do it because Africa is Africa. They don’t know. The medical system, mean, practice work out, it’s different. They think people can’t see over there. We see here in these MRI machines. But that was another issue. So my doctor kept fighting with me about that. And finally, I succumbed to what he said. Take it or you lose your mobility, your eyesight and all that.

Those were very hard moments. The cultural aspect, the mental battles with that, it created a big rift. Even mentally, for me, it caused a lot of Because I’ve got the guilt.

Here I am doing what my parents and grandparents told me not to, whom I listened to growing up. But being away for so long, they consider it, okay, you westernized, you Americanized, you don’t listen to people. But it’s one of those things that I had to just try to overcome.

 

Overcoming MS (11:43)

One of the things, so George Jernanek, who came up with the Overcoming MS programme, said that take Western medicine when appropriate, but also he said it’s important to have faith as well, which sometimes people think are opposite each other have you found times when faith has helped carry you through and helps with your journey?

 

 

Kebba F Jow (11:54)

My goodness, of course. Faith is what got me here. Because I had to trust God. I had to trust faith that this, I’m a believer that everything happens for a reason. know, when times got short, I’m always in a dark moment. I’ll get up and pray. I’ll pray, know, I’ll lay in the bed and I’ll just pray to the man upstairs. I’m a believer. And I’ll ask him, God, you gave me this disease.

Please help me find a way out of it. Help me overcome this. I have a family. I have a wife and three young daughters in college. Two in college and one in middle school here. Help me find a way to be the dad I can be. The husband I can be because I’m losing my mind. And without those prayers, I don’t think I would have made it. I’ll get up and I’ll pray and I look at it, everything happens for a reason. God took away basketball from me, that’s how I look at it. But what did he give me? A cane and a mic, and the ability to write a story. Writing a memoir to just help people, writing my story, faith put me through this. I ask God, should I write a book? How can you help me help the next person up?

So me writing everything that I went through, because the way I saw everything is just I couldn’t find any information, anyone that wrote anything to what I was going through. The mental battles, the physical, you know, just the transformation, whole, the way my system is, taking medications, the side effects.

Nobody talked about it. So these things were so much that, you know, I just had to hold onto faith. Like, you know what, God carried me through. Sometimes there were many, many times, many days.

I don’t know what it looks like. You take the medicine and tomorrow I’m wondering, okay, will I be able to walk? Will this burning sensation go away? Will this headache go away? This pain that I have constant 24-7, how am I gonna overcome this? I just said power of prayer. I just have faith that you know what, this thing too shall pass. So 24 years in, I’ll say the main thing is my faith. That’s what carried me through. Because without faith, it’d be a lost cause.

 

Overcoming MS (14:13)

And so you’ve mentioned being an author, also I believe you’re a motivational speaker. And so how did finding your voice speaking and writing help you personally heal and move forward?

 

Kebba F Jow (14:26)

Well, the thing is, how it helps me? Knowing that it helps somebody else. The first time I gave a speech and I wrote down everything I was going through. My doctor saw it, like, you know what? These things you’re talking about, these are things science cannot figure out. I said, bingo, this is it. Because here I am, I’m worried about the medication. Okay? I’m worried about how people see me with the cane. I’m worried about losing my strength. I’m worried about these side effects. So me talking about this on stage and seeing patients, MS patients or even other Parkinson’s nodding their heads relating to everything I said and then leaving the stage and coming, people coming to talk to me. I said, you know what?

This is what I’m meant to be doing. I met a lady at a conference in Atlanta for the fourth neuroscience conference. And she came in crying on her mom’s shoulder. And they told her, well, you need to go see Kebba. The gentleman sitting right there on the table, he’s got a new book out.

She came and she was just crying. I stood up Geoff. I said, let me tell you something real quick. I’m 51 I got diagnosed at 27. I’m still here. I’m still standing. And I wrote a book about everything that I went through. She calmed down.

I said look, if you ever want to talk, just call me. I’ve dealt with these things, I know what you’re feeling. The fear, that was the biggest part of being diagnosed with MS. I had to get diagnosed at a center called the shepherd center here in Atlanta. The shepherd center is a spinal cord and brain injury rehab center. I walked in there nervously not knowing that all these patients don’t have MS. They have other things going on. So that grief when the gentleman, the doctor told me the neurologist said you have MS. Now I’m here at the Shepherd Center thinking all these people have MS. But no, you know, I had to later find out that okay they don’t me having MS doesn’t mean I’m gonna be like this and I told her I said don’t look at everyone here some some people on the wheelchair some people have a cane you might live with MS for the longest and you will not have any physical symptoms it might be internal so don’t worry about it and she just come right her mom looked at me and just shook my hand kept nodding I said you know what call me. I’m available to talk to you anytime, any way I can help because I’ve dealt with this. I know for a fact how it feels being young and they tell you that this is your life now and you don’t know because nobody knows what tomorrow holds. It messes just like that, a snap of a finger. I got blind in my eye and then it came back. But at that time I’m thinking.

 This is it, it’s gonna be my life. I’m gonna be blind in one eye and who knows when the next eye is gonna go away. so talking to people and giving them a positive outlook on life really helped them. That’s why I’m out there now.

 

Three weeks ago, I went to, it’s called Men with MS. And I went out there and gave a speech. And everyone out there could relate. I talked about the king. I talked about the embarrassment, the mental battles, me sitting in my backyard. I used to sit in my backyard crying, crying to God at night.

Everybody’s sleeping. I’ll sit in the bed, lay down, I’ll have tears in my eyes because I’m not the same person I used to be. You have to, you know, know, wall walking, holding onto the wall. And my walls, all the walls are dirty because of my hands and looking at it, I have to clean it. I’m thinking to myself, why me? That’s the one, but that’s why it became the title of my book, Why Me?

 

Overcoming MS (17:49)

Yeah. I think what you were saying about the men with MS as well, that’s another thing because there’s not that many of us, is there? It’s mostly a female disease.

 

Kebba F Jow (18:05)

Yep and you know as far as men We take pride You know as husbands and fathers. We don’t want to appear weak And when I stood out there talking to everyone all the men were like wow Wow Dude, you just spoke for me. said, I know because we all go through it, you know, and that’s what I told the healthcare folks do.

There’s some things that we go through that you cannot explain or you can never relate to.

This guy talked about going to games with his kids and he can’t even get up on the stands very well. And you know, the daughter’s helping him get up. I said, I’ve there. You know, so having someone that can relate to what you’re feeling, having that huddle, it was immense huddle. It was really helpful session for everyone because we all just talked about the internal things that we deal with that doctors cannot see and how to overcome all these issues.

Because people will look at you, especially kids. I got out of the gym the other day, two kids, they were walking with their dad. you know, sometimes, you know how a man says, it hurts.

And you can’t help but show in your face that it hurts. So the kid says to me, what is wrong with you? I said, sweetie, it hurts. You want to carry me to my car? And the dad’s like, hey, I’m sorry. I said, no, man, come on. It’s no big deal. Kids are kids, you know? But if you don’t look at it that way, you know, mentally, that’s a big deal.

 

But none of us live in isolation. Everybody’s going through something.

Mind is physical and mental sometimes, but physical part mostly because that’s what people see. And we all talk about it and figure out ways to just help each other out, overcome these things. If you go out next time, don’t worry about what people think and just live your best life. Get dressed well, eat right, workout, have the positive people around you. You can’t go wrong.

 

Overcoming MS (20:06)

Living Well with MS is listener supported. To help us create more episodes, please visit donate.overcomingms.org to make a donation.

 

Overcoming MS (20:16)

So your memoir, Why Me What Now? what do you hope that readers would take from that and what inspired you to write it?

 

Kebba F Jow (20:24)

My main thing was inspire people as far as I did not have any answers to everything that was going on. The mental battles, the shame of having a cane, the cultural issues that I dealt with.

Science is here to help us. We can’t focus on, especially me, because nowadays there’s a lot more people with MS from third world countries where I came from, the medical practice wasn’t that well that you can find all these diseases and diagnose all these things. We cannot depend on, I mean we cannot focus on what culture says.

My culture says, stay away from western medicine. That’s the wrong move. these things are here to help us. And that’s what I really want people to get out of, I mean, from just the mental battles, the sitting at home, because sometimes you get lonely. You’re gonna sit there and you’re gonna worry about, okay, am I gonna be able to walk tomorrow?

Will I be able to provide for my family? Will my wife still love me? Will my kids still love me? Are they still gonna be with me? I’ve been married for 24 years. I was diagnosed with my wife sitting right next to me at the hospital. We got back in the car and we couldn’t talk because we were both in shock. She moved from New Hampshire.

 

My girlfriend at the time moved here so we can continue dating, she graduated college and then you know we can eventually get married. But now here comes this surprise. We drove 16 hours for you to come here. But guess what? Now life just threw a wrangle, a wrench in all our plans.

What happened to getting married? What happened to having kids? What happened to dancing at their weddings? What happened to traveling? MS is here. And I just told them. I said, you know, I got all this in my memoirs. I mean, it’s like, we see what the doctor said. This is my life right now. If you want to walk away from me, I am totally fine with that.

I’ll bless you with it and life goes on. I will not get mad at you. She came back the next day, 2002, and said, you know what? I’m gonna be here with you. We’re gonna fight this together. In 24 years, you got three daughters still rocking with it. that’s what we’re going back to. Remember when I said that girl that I walked in at the center and she asked to sit next to me? She was 21 years old? She just got engaged, graduated from college. she was worried about her fiance leaving. Just graduated college. And I was in the same boat. And I said her, I said, look, let me tell you.

Your story is a carbon copy of mine. If he loves you, he’s not going anywhere. My wife loved me when I got diagnosed. She loved me still with the cane. We’re building a life together. Do not worry about none of that. Have a positive mindset. Eat right. Exercise. Have the positive people around you and he’s not going anywhere.

People like her made me start to speaking because it’s the vibe that I brought to people. People saw positivity every time they see me.

Okay, if this guy’s got a cane, he cannot walk very well, he’s in pain every time. But he shows up four days out of the week at the gym, puts in the work.

 

Overcoming MS (23:29)

So you’ve mentioned a bit about community. So what role has community or actually what potentially role is the lack of community played in your journey with MS?

 

Kebba F Jow (23:38)

If you don’t have your community around you, who are you going to talk to? Because I’ve seen patients that don’t have anyone. And that’s why the gentleman that created it is called brother to brother. Like for people that have MS can come together and talk because some of the patients don’t have anyone to talk to. That is the biggest problem.

When I go to, I have my wife, I have my daughters, I have the gym. I’ve got the Muslim community that I have around me. And everyone comes around to support you. So having the support system is the main thing. And I’ve people all the time.

Make sure you have people around you because if you don’t mentally, it’s gonna eat you up. Your mind’s gonna be racing. You’re gonna worry about, tomorrow. How’s this gonna feel? How’s this gonna feel? How am I gonna get to where I need to get to? Who’s gonna take me? If you don’t have that, that is a big problem. And committee, I’ll take you back. When I started walking with the cane, 2019, it affected me so much, I didn’t wanna go out because I was too ashamed to be seen. There was a gentleman, he passed away, he had a heart attack, God bless his soul. So he used to see me with a limp at the gym. So he didn’t see me for a couple of weeks and he said to my brother, hey, what’s going on with Chief? You haven’t seen me, what’s wrong? He said, know, the disease has gotten to him lately and he’s on a cane and it’s affected him so much he doesn’t even want go out.

The gentleman said, ask him, said, okay, let me ask you, can you give me his phone number? He said, well, let me ask him. So he texted me, my brother texted me, he hey, Keith, that’s his name, Keith, Keith wants your phone number. I said, well, that’s fine, yeah, give him my number. Keith called me, he said, let me tell you, he’s from Jamaica. He said, Chief, he said, do you know how many, how many people love you here at the gym? And I said, well, I understand. He’s like, your brother told me what’s going on. He’s an old gentleman. He said, if you don’t show up at the gym, I’ll come and get you. And I started crying on the phone. He said, look, life, everything happens for a reason. God chose you for this. So come to the gym or I’ll come get you. I hung up. This was on a Friday. Come Monday, I got up.

Dressed go to the gym. The moment I walked in is funny. He’s the first one that saw me He walked to me and gave me a hug. I had the cane He said that cane is nothing that cane shows you a survivor. You didn’t give up Do not worry about this cane Life goes on your man life goes on and I had tears in my eyes and many other people came in That’s the community.

If I didn’t have that, I’d be sitting at home, I’d be feeling sad. MS wins because I’m not making a move. I’m not exercising, I’m not eating, I’m crying all the time. My marriage would have been done. Who wants to be with someone that’s always negative? My kids would hate me, no.

That’s the biggest thing, but many people don’t have the community and they do, they need it.

 

So having that communal, I mean, atmosphere, that’s healing right there. That is healing.

 

Overcoming MS (26:31)

So if there’s someone who is isolated, stuck, they feel defeated by the MS diagnosis, what advice would you give to them?

 

Kebba F Jow (26:41)

My main advice to, you’re feeling down, pick up the phone. you’ve got the MS Society, you’ve got all these online groups that put people together. Do not just feel like you’re down and out, no. Grab the phone.

If you don’t talk to people you’re gonna feel down and out and that’s what this disease wants do not.

Pick up the phone, look online, just advocacy groups. They’re all over the place we can talk to. I know what it feels like to be in that whole dark place that you don’t even know.

You know, and I applaud my spouse and my kids because, you know, there places you want to go to but daddy can’t even go because he got stairs. You know, and sometimes I have to use a cane and I can’t walk up the stairs or sometimes I’ll use the wheelchair because walking is too hard, it’s too difficult, you know how it is. But having the right people around you will keep your sanity in check. If not, everything’s going to go haywire.

 

Overcoming MS (27:29)

Yeah, I’ll do shout out. We have our own overcoming MS circles, are groups. One of the things actually is that a lot of the time, so they’re local groups.

 

Kebba F Jow (27:44)

There you go, you need that.

 

Overcoming MS (27:50)

But I think MS, they say it causes depression more than any other condition. So yeah, it did.

 

Kebba F Jow (27:54)

My God, don’t talk about that.

That right there is the biggest, biggest deal, depression. You stay depressed. I mean, that’s why I said, there many times, many days, I contemplated the unthinkable because I didn’t want to keep going. Life is not what it used to be.

From basketball, running, walking is a problem now. From here to the mailbox, it’s a problem. Everything hurts. Walking down the stairs, you get so depressed. But no, when depression hits, I’ll get up and I’ll get out. Staying indoors, that’s when it kicks in, it’ll eat you up. I’ll get the sunlight.

I’ll go outside, I’ll hear the birds singing, I’ll walk. Even if it’s drizzling, I’ll walk. Just to get my mind set out of it because depression kills. And what they say with MS? Stress. That’s what it does. The more you stress, the more flares you get. So when depression hits, I gotta get up and get out

 

Overcoming MS (28:48)

So, what does hope look like for you now? What makes you optimistic and how do you keep that hope alive?

 

Kebba F Jow (29:03)

Hope, I think I’ll say it’s the medicine. The new medicines that are coming out, especially this one that I’m taking right now, Within those six months, I have no symptoms. Everything’s good. I’m so hopeful,

The three things. Exercise, eat right, positive people around you, which is the community. That’s my hope. Once I get those things in line, I know those three things are always going to be there. Eat right, exercise, and the community. They’re always going to be there. That’s my hope. Top it off with the medicine. I’m going to follow through with my medication.

 

People see me and they’re going through some things themselves, financial, relationship problems, or just grief. And I tell them these three things. Positivity, eat right and take care of your body. Your body is what carries you. That’s how I look at it. Everything hurts, but guess what? When it hurts, that’s when I want to go to the gym because guess what? I know you want me to stay home. I’m not going to stay home. My hope is to keep moving and keep standing all the time.

 

Overcoming MS (29:58)

So we normally ask a final question which is do you have any tips for someone who’s newly diagnosed

 

Kebba F Jow (30:05)

 The newly diagnosed, it’s not the end. It’s grief. It’s shock. You’re confused because this is something new. And when your body starts failing you that’s the biggest part. That’s something that mentally you gotta be, you gotta stay ready for that because it’s gonna come. They think that you will notice that, okay, it’s different. Okay, how come I can’t lift my leg to put on my pants? These things mentally will eat you up if you don’t, okay, relax. If I have to sit down and put my pants on, I will. It’s not the same how it used to be. I’ll get up, lift my leg and just be athletic, stick it in my leg, in my pant leg and keep moving,

I have to adapt. That’s what I did with the cane. The cane didn’t represent what I lost. The disability is not losing anything. It’s just time to change, change the ways. If you have to use aid, use aid. It’s something new. It’s something very difficult to accept because that was a big part for me. I couldn’t accept the cane for a long time, but I figured out that this is to help me out.

I’m still here. I’m still here doing a podcast with you. I wrote a book.

Life is not gonna be bad all the time. If someone had told me that back in the day, I wouldn’t believe it. But it took a while for me to accept that this was gonna happen. This is what’s happening. I have to take it for what it is and keep moving on.

 

Overcoming MS (31:20)

And with that, firstly I’d like to thank you very much for joining us and I definitely encourage everyone to check out the show notes and you’ll find links to the books and the resources we talked about. And yeah, thanks for joining us. Kebba Jow.

 

Kebba F Jow (31:26)

Yeah.

Absolutely. Thank you so much.