[bridgie]

Just recently a friend of mine was diagnosed with ms. She has been having injection treatments and its helping.a little but she still is having problems. Anyone on here have any coping skills or advise for what she can do or what I as a friend can do to help.

[Inny2009]

My husbands best friend was diagnosised with ms. And being a caregiver in a nursing home I have worked with people diagnosised with ms. I am very sorry your friend has been diagnosised with this illness. At this point, the most you can really do is tend to her emotionally. Offer girl time so that she can talk if she wants to, if she doesnt want to talk about it thats ok, just show her a good time. Offer her your time, if she needs help with house hold chores, if she has kids offer to drive them to maybe their sports activities or watch them for a day or overnight or grocery shopping that would be nice of you too offer your assistance with that. Just let her know that if she ever needs anything that you are there to support her, drive her to doctors appointments if needed or cook her a dinner that she can just pop in the oven real quick etc...Dont be too pushy though. Cause im guessing she is still pretty independent, and you dont want to make her feel too dependent. Just say let me know if there is anything i can do for you and I will help in any way i can. Then if you go over to her house and she seems she needs help with anything. Offer to help with it, if she denies say ok and let it go. She is going to want to hold on to all the independence as long as she can. If she agrees then go with it. Now im not sure how far along she is in her illness im just going by the idea that she is in the first stages since she just found out and is still doing mostly everything before her diagnosis. Good luck and she is in my prayers.

[thunderbear]

Hey Bridgie so sorry to hear about your friend. Inny is right on about all that. My mom had MS and all we could do was help her. Offer our ears to her. It helps people dealing with chronic illnesses a lot to just be able to talk to someone. Get stuff off of their chests. Or to have an extra hand if they need help with kids, housework, etc. Like Inny said you don't want to make her feel dependant but let her know you are there for anything she may need. Good luck to you and your friend. She's in my prayers