01/10/02
Two local women see firsthand the
troubling effects of multiple sclerosis every day, but refuse to let the
illness that afflicts their husbands keep them from supporting the men
they love.
Marieta Hicks of Ringgold and Margaret
McRoy of Rossville were honored Dec. 12 as Catoosa County Caregivers of
the Year by the Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia chapter of the National
Multiple Sclerosis Society for their ongoing commitment to the care and
comfort of their husbands.
“These women have incredible responsibilities
at home,” said Jeanne B. Brice, chapter programs director for the southeast
Tennessee and north Georgia chapter of the NMSS. “They deserve our recognition
and gratitude for what they do.”
“These gentlemen have a very progressed
form of multiple sclerosis (MS),” Brice said. “The good news about a diagnosis
of MS at this time in history is that there are medications that are available
that can slow the progression and hopefully we will never see another generation
of people who are as severely limited as these gentlemen are.”
Hicks, whose husband Dewayne was
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 30 in 1976, works full-time to
support the couple of 31 years.
“I’ve really felt all along that
I didn’t deserve this award because (Dewayne) is the trooper that manages
to be able to stay by himself all day long,” Hicks said.
“I still thank the Lord every day
that God gave me a wonderful husband because he’s precious, and we love
each other,” she said. “We’ve been through a lot of times. I’m sure we’ll
go through a lot more, but the Lord sustains us.”
Dewayne has been confined to a wheelchair
for 12 years, she said.
“He’s been unable to work for over
20 years, so I’ve been the person working and taking care of him in the
home,” she said. “It’s quite a taxing task to take care of everything and
take care of another person.”
Hicks works full-time at Tennessee
Valley Authority and gets up early to prepare her husband for the day before
she leaves for work. She comes home at lunch to feed and visit with him.
Their 21-year-old son, Jamison, also lives with the couple and helps care
for his father.
She said her husband experienced
a relapsing-remitting form of the disease in the early years following
his diagnosis. He has faced a progressive form of MS since about the time
he became wheelchair bound.
Hicks said her husband’s hand-eye
coordination and memory have gradually diminished, making it difficult
for him to find pursuits to occupy his time, such as using a computer.
She said he watches television, and family friends call to visit with him.
Hicks credits the support of the
MS Society, East Ridge Church of God and Tri-State Resource and Advocacy
Corp. for spiritual and financial support. She also appreciates the couple’s
close friends for helping them face the daily challenges of coping with
the disease.
McRoy’s husband, Ernest, was diagnosed
with MS in 1960 and faces a number of aggravated health issues.
The couple, married since 1948, has
steadily coped with the changes and remains connected.
“You just have to take things as
they come and not dwell on the bad things,” she said. “If you let yourself,
you can get in bad shape, and I can’t let myself do that. He needs me,
and he’s been a good husband.”
McRoy said her husband was paralyzed
for six months during the year he was diagnosed. Ernest, although still
plagued with minor symptoms, experienced a remission of the disease that
allowed him to work for about 25 years before MS “hit with a vengeance.”
She said a number of related health
problems have confined her husband to bed, and he has had to visit the
hospital several times.
“He’s in bed practically all of the
time until I can get some strong backs to come in and put him in his wheelchair,
but then he doesn’t want to stay in it long,” she said. “It’s affected
his memory, and he can’t really focus on things for long.”
The couple’s children, Susan Ponder,
Carol Newman and David McRoy, help them, but McRoy, who cares for her husband
around the clock, doesn’t like to bother them if she can help it “because
they all work, and they all have their problems,” she said.
“We manage real well,” McRoy added.
“He’s got a very good attitude and doesn’t complain. That makes it a whole
lot easier on me.”
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Chris Zelk