Tag Archives: MS

Mar 08 2019
8 Comments
Blogging

Writing The Wrongs

One of the best things about having a blog is encouraging others who also want to start one.

Over the years, since 2012 when I first signed up to WordPress, I’ve spoken with people all over the world about how to get started, how to keep up the momentum and just how to have a real idea about what it is they want to say – what they have to say.

Back then, in the dark old days, I wanted to express what was happening after my MS diagnosis, what I was feeling. I was disoriented, lost and experiencing an entire whirlwind of emotions. Plus, I was also being slowly bullied out of my job.

I reached out to a writer who had written a very personal account of her MS in a national newspaper, about her struggle to come to terms with a life with MS. It was raw and brutal, exactly how I felt. We communicated back and forward through emails and she encouraged me to start a blog. The rest is history. Thanks to her, I’ve gone from blog to PhD.

I always wanted to be a writer, so perhaps that is why I feel privileged to be following this path now. MS shunted me from the career I was building to a building career – I work as a project manager for a building company. The irony doesn’t escape me.

But I wanted something more. I love my job – it allows me the flexibility and creative talent to excel at what I do, but it’s not everything. It also has an end-point. My energy is limited, I fall asleep at awkward times, I trip over stray wires, I repeat stuff. Luckily, I work with my best friend who knows more about MS than anyone else.

Writing has allowed me to discuss, dissect and analyse every single niggle I’ve ever had with MS, and bringing up a Teenager throughout a life with MS. Abject loneliness has been replaced with a worldwide hug of immense proportions. You guys just … get me.

You’ve been through the ups and downs, you’ve seen The Teenager through the best and worst of times. You even took the time to send him messages of support when he was in a grim place and he read every single one with a smile on his face.

Writing is incredibly powerful and I didn’t realise that until I started. I poured out all the pent-up angst and you were with me through my epic Pity-Party-For-One.

It’s hard, baring your soul. But, you guys have shown me that it is so, so worth it.

If when I attain my PhD, you’re all invited. Without you, it wouldn’t happen.

Reach out and lift up …

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Mar 05 2019
6 Comments
Emotions

How I Live Now

My seventh official MS-versary is looming.

The Teenager’s 20th Birthday isn’t far behind.

We got this far, and I still can’t quite believe it. Who would have thought that broken, miserable, pity-party-for-one person would morph into, well, me? Us?

We did it. All I wanted was to see my son safely into the next stage of the life of his choosing, not one imposed on him by this illness. .

He won’t have to tell people he never knew his mother, can’t remember her apart from a few vague snapshots; as I did with my dad who died long before the incredible MS treatment options we now have today.

Yes, we still went through hell. Mortality and High School don’t tend to go together, especially when you’re the single, main parent. Corners were cut, but the absolute commitment to him remained. I did my absolute best and he has, after a few shaky starts, turned out to be a young man I am incredibly proud of.

Of course, like me, he got angry. Angry that I was sacked, angry that I couldn’t find a new job after I ticked that disability box, angry that society turned its back on me . And most of all, angry that this illness had interrupted his childhood.

We had our battles, as we got used to our new roles. His once energised parent was now useless and tired, so, so tired, but he was never my carer. I hope I was always emotionally present for him even when my body didn’t follow the protocol.

I planned my Lemtrada infusions around his brief holidays with his father, trying my hardest to appear rested and healthy when he returned home two days after I was discharged.

Now he is at University, he is forging his own path. You could say my job is done, I got what I wished for all those years ago, and it is. The relief is immense, although I know his years in High School were not without MS dramas.

My son is not my confidant, I have friends for that. He is not my carer, I would employ one if I needed that. He is a young man making his own way in the world.

Some people say I’m just lucky that I was able to access brilliant treatment and I completely agree with them. I took the riskier, quicker option that I was fortunate enough to access and why wouldn’t I? Who else would pick my son up from rugby training twice a week? I accepted the side-effects (Graves, yep, am fat), but I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

I’m glad my son will not be taken to see my body when he is four years old, and forever wonder what he would say to me, should he have the chance. I’m glad my son grew up with me at his side, no matter what my disabilities. And I’m glad my son has grown up to be such a compassionate advocate for disability rights.

Above all, I am glad that he had you guys at his side – you’ve watched him grow up, you’ve given advice and you’ve comforted him and I cannot thank you all enough.

So, I may struggle every single day, but I will still struggle every single day and I will still struggle to continue doing so, no matter what comes my way.

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Feb 17 2019
6 Comments
Daily Life

Playing The MS Game

Almost seven years after my diagnosis, and years of symptoms before that, I think I’m now fairly adept at playing the MS Game.

I know when it’s best to:

Wake up – 5am – brain at fullest function, emails, print things off, brainstorm Uni stuff. Coffee helps.

Shower – straight after work (I know, weird, huh?) but working as a builder, it’s best to wait until after work as I just can’t handle two showers in a day. I shove my hair under a woolly hat and hope for the best (and some customers call me ‘lad’, gah).

Cook – a moveable feast – whenever I have the energy. Freezer bags of pre-cooked food are my friend for bad days when I can do nothing more than microwave. On really bad days, well …

Work – has changed so much over the years. Thank goodness my job is flexible and can be adjusted to how I’m feeling, plus working with a group of friends is balm for the soul, compared to the bullying I put up with in my previous job.

Study – five minutes here, ten there. Anywhere and everywhere. Boss drooling in Screwfix? Whip book out, highlighter in hand. Boss talking for hours with the plumber/electrician/plasterer? Same. As friends, we go back a very long way and he knows I pull my weight (lol).

Do Housework – on an ‘As And When’ Basis. Cordless vacuum, ignore the dust. Keep hold of that leaflet for cleaning services for when I win the lottery.

LIve – the tricky one. I no longer travel alone. I rarely socialize. Once, twice a month – it’s a lot of effort. Home is my safe space. Meetings are planned for the morning and taxis are a godsend. It’s the afternoons and evenings that are the problem.

Handle Relapses – the worst of all worlds, especially living alone. All of the above is scaled back to The Sofa.

Hold a Pity-Party – definitely in the wee small hours. I’m plagued by MS insomnia at the moment and seem to feel every single symptom, amplified. My legs crawl with neuropathic pain, I twitch, my hands move too fast or too slow. It’s a waking nightmare.

I think when you have MS, you live with endless body-consciousness – we know exactly what we are capable of (or not) on a day-to-day basis. I still smile when someone says, ‘yeah, cool, next Thursday?

I have absolutely no idea how next Thursday is going to be …

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Feb 10 2019
4 Comments
Emotions

You’re On Your Own

What does it feel like to live on your own with MS and essentially be your own carer?

Luckily, we now have a vast array of information for carers of people with MS. There are carers groups, helplines, benefits.

Thank goodness things have improved immeasurably since my dad had MS back in the 1970’s.

But living on your own with MS is a whole different ball-game – you are the patient and the carer. Sure, we might see our neurologist and MS nurse once a year – the support they give is invaluable.

Yet look beyond those two appointments, and you discover a whole raft of worry, anxiety and fear. It’s almost like arguing with yourself: ‘you need to rest’, ‘Yeah, I know, but I need to go to work/sort out the laundry/write a shopping list.’ And, ‘whoops, there goes another coffee cup, who’s going to clean it up?’

Sometimes you can cope with the conflicting advice you get from yourself, and then other times it tips over; you’re too tired to make dinner, you fall out of the shower and lie on the floor for over an hour, you take yet another day off work and worry about your income. It is Just You.

It doesn’t help when you’re also too damn proud to ask for help. I’m fortunate in that I know I have that back-up should I need it, but it still makes day-to-day living hard at times. My long-suffering Boss sometimes takes me to pick up my prescriptions, drives me to the shops for food and is always on hand to fix a blown fuse or a broken washing machine. But back at home, when the door closes, I know I’m on my own.

It’s tempting to slide into another Pity-Party-For-One, and I always fight against it – I held one for two years after my diagnosis and I don’t want to revisit those dark times.

I wish there was more information about Living on Your Own with MS. Many of us do. We muddle through.

And of course, there’s an upside – I’m eternally grateful I was on my own when I fell out of the shower. The thought of being discovered clutching a bunch of cotton buds, naked save for a small towel brings me out in a cold sweat.

This is where social media comes to the fore – to send a little tweet out into the ether and have so many comforting replies is amazing.

We may live on our own, but are we still part of a bigger network?

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Feb 09 2019
12 Comments
Emotions

Grossly Unfair

I don’t need to be ‘fat-shamed’.

I do that myself, quite easily, every single day.

No-one was more shocked than me, with how much weight I packed on after starting medication for neuropathic pain, back in 2011.

Then the Grave’s Disease, oscillating between hyper and hypo with a string of meds to match.

Then the carb-fest I indulged in during family dramas.

So, yes, I admit it, I’m fat.

I agree it’s not a disability as such, but it’s certainly a side-effect of a disability, in my case, MS.

On top of everything I’m coping with, I’m astounded that some people have a problem with my weight. I’m mobile, I work, I go to University to study, I look after myself and need no external help.

It’s not easy finding nothing to wear in shops apart from lurid tops in garish colours. Or catching a glimpse of yourself in one of those long mirrors – the chubby face, the still-healing hernia, the ‘bigness’ of me, when inside I feel pretty small.

It’s weird – my MS is mostly invisible and I have to prove over and over again that I am in pain, that I could do with some kind words and help. Yet my weight, outwardly visible, is what people remark upon and feel free to make hurtful comments about.

Believe me, I know. And I also know that fat-shaming does not work.

Fat-shaming keeps you at home, exactly the same as MS. It keeps you out of view as much as possible. And it hurts, deeply.

When I stand on stage and talk to a crowd of people, I’m acutely aware I’m fat. But, I put that to one side and give my best. The people are there to hear me talk, not judge me on my dress size. I would like to think that what I have to say about MS is far more important than my weight.

I am not impacting our NHS or our social services with my weight,

I carry it all by myself.

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