Staff Sgt. Esteban Goniwicha with 435th Security Forces shares his up and coming story of being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, also known as MS.
Transcript
So, I’m Stephan Konowitch I’m with the 135th security force squadron. I wanna be, like, outdoors. It was always like my outlet in, throughout like all of my life. It always helped me like de-stress. Back last year I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, it also goes by MS. Essentially what MS is, it’s a demyelinating condition, so your white blood cells will attack your nervous system and it can lead to loss of function, of like limbs or like numbness, tingling, loss of vision. People in my unit really kept me- Kept me going, they were in the hospital with me. They were there pretty much everyday, a lot of them. So, starting to run and hike fairly often, after the diagnosis, really helped, like helped clear my mind, helped de-stress myself and just put my back into the proper mindset, like help bounce back. No matter how bad it can be or could be. It honestly, I feel like, it made me a better person. Just going through tough stuff. I just tell myself “Hey, you beat MS” or like, “You got this and you’re still doing this”. You just take a moment and you’re just like “life is great”.