Dianne Ready - a tingling feeling that something was wrong

Most of you have probably had a tingling arm at some time – that sensation that a limb was asleep and is awakening. Or the residual feeling after hitting your funny bone. But when is a tingle more than just that?

For Dianne Ready, the day she distinctly remembers such a tingle starting was Thanksgiving, 1980. She and her family were at her grandparents’ home, in St. Paul, Minnesota. “The tingling went down my right arm, and my neck,” Dianne said. “It was not painful, but annoying. I thought it will go away, but it didn’t go away.”

Dianne Ready serving at
Blessings Abound thrift store

A normal assumption was that it might be a pinched nerve, though generally there is pain with a pinched nerve. Dianne made a doctor’s appointment to get it checked out. The doctor sent her to the hospital to run some tests, including a spinal tap. The diagnosis was inconclusive. “I can tell you a hundred things you don’t have, but not what you have,” is what Dianne remembers the doctor saying. “It was disconcerting,” she said, “because I just wanted to know what it was.” Dianne was 32 at that time.

It would be another six years before that question would be answered, in large part because Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) had finally become widely available and reliable.

Through the next years, Dianne continued in her job with human resources for a firm that specialized in animal health care products, but most of her job involved typing. As the tingling went all the way to her fingertips, typing because increasingly difficult. Then colleagues started making comments that got her attention, such as, “What did you do to your leg? You’re limping.” Dianne hadn’t even been aware she was limping. As with her arm, the symptoms affected her right leg and foot.

By 1986, the symptoms had increased enough that Dianne knew something was wrong, and made another doctor’s appointment. This time, with the use of MRI, lesions were noted on her brain.

She and her husband, Dick, were asked to meet with the doctor once the test results were in. Dianne had met Dick when she was 18 and working at the Jones Store Co. in Prairie Village. “I worked in the sportswear department, and he came in looking for a gift for his girlfriend in Ohio, a sweater or a blouse,” Dianne said. “Everything I showed him, he said, ‘I don’t want to spend that much money.’” From that comment, Dianne inferred that Dick and his girlfriend must not have a good relationship. Sure enough, after that meeting, Dick, who also worked at the store, started stopping by the sportswear department just to say hi. Dianne and Dick were soon dating, and married in 1968.

Dianne and Dick Ready

At the doctor’s office, Dianne and Dick received news that would send their world spinning. The diagnosis was Multiple Sclerosis. “It was a real shock,” Dianne said. “I didn’t even know what questions to ask. I said, if there’s a cure do you keep me on a mailing list or what? And the doctor said that a cure isn’t likely.”

Dianne said that particular doctor’s bedside manner was poor. He didn’t offer any suggestions, a word of hope, or even much basic information. But the next day, as Dianne was trying to process what this all meant, her husband paid a visit to an organization that could help. “Dick had gone to the MS Society and gotten a lot of info,” she said. “I hadn’t thought of that. He even had a brochure on newly diagnosed people.”

The information contained details of a support group, so Dianne decided to try it. But what she found, she said, was that the people in the group were all at different stages than she was, more severe stages, so she didn’t return.

Multiple Sclerosis is an immune-mediated disease, where the immune system eats away at the protective covering, called myelin, of the nerves. The damaged myelin forms scar tissue, called sclerosis.

Dianne’s diagnosis was Primary-Progressive MS, which affects about 10 percent of people diagnosed with MS. The disease steadily worsens from the onset, though the rate of progress varies among individuals. PPMS involves less inflammation than the other three courses of MS, so there remains some controversy regarding whether any type of medication is useful. There is no cause or cure as yet identified, though it is thought to be triggered in a genetically susceptible person by one or more environmental factors. PPMS tends to affect the ability to walk more than the other three courses of MS.

For Dianne, who has lived with the disease almost 35 years, the progression has given her a variety of challenges. Her right hand is stiff and curled into a fist. She can use force to unbend her fingers, but they won’t then stay in that position. She uses a cane but walks with a slow gait. “I fought using a transport chair, a chair with wheels that someone pushes, for a long time,” she said. “I don’t know if it was vanity, or if I didn’t want to admit that I needed it.” But she has come to appreciate how helpful it is for navigating longer distances, such as when in a shopping mall or an airport. Dick is normally her navigator, but many others have helped.

One Sunday at worship, Dianne received an epiphany of sorts that would allow her to make a decision that she had been wanting to make for quite a while, and that was to leave her job. “The gospel was Matthew 6:25-34,” Dianne said, referring to a text that says we need not worry about tomorrow. “As I listened, I got all teary-eyed,” she said, “and I knew that God was speaking to me and would take care of me. And I said that’s it, I’m done. I informed my supervisor of the decision to go on long-term disability the next day.”

Dianne Ready (far right) with three others
from Holy Cross serving at Grand Avenue Temple

Though retired, Dianne doesn’t spend much time sitting idly. When she and Dick came to Holy Cross 10 years ago, she became involved in Community Ministries. “I was made aware of all the opportunities to help,” Dianne said. “There was so much to do. I was excited.”

Dianne especially enjoys serving monthly at a breakfast for clients of Metro Lutheran Ministries, where she greets and hands out silverware and plates. “I love the interaction with people,” she said, “their appreciation for what we do. Many say God bless you as they go through the line.”

She helps weekly at Blessings Abound thrift store, pricing donated items. At Holy Cross, she serves as a greeter at the welcome center. Dianne also is the intake coordinator for HopeBUILDERS, entering information in the database for clients who need help with such things as minor home repairs and wheelchair ramps. After she had mentioned to a few Holy Cross mission partners who are active with HopeBUILDERS that it would be nice to have easier access to the west wing of the building, a ramp appeared the next week.

Dianne also has mentored others diagnosed with MS. “I just want to let them know there’s hope,” she said, “to support them and tell them what my journey is like, that they’re not alone.”

She has not had to walk this path alone either. She and Dick have an adult son and daughter, and three grandchildren. But it is Dick who has been her rock. “God gave me an incredible and loving caregiver,” Dianne said, “who makes certain my life is easier and less stressful.”

Dianne also is thankful for family and friends who offer concern and support. “People in general are so kind, so considerate,” she said. “I’m truly blessed.”