Welcome to my Blog

Hello I’m Debbie and I feel the need to write this blog as I can’t seem to find anything out there on the web that actually represents me and my journey with Multiple Sclerosis.

I find most of the information is medical. Various lists of symptoms (all very scary reading when first diagnosed) and explanations of the disease and diagrams of demyelination. Books and leaflets available for every manifestation of the possible path of MS (incontinence, fatigue and spasms to name but a few) and the categories of MS. Ah, yes, the depressing explanation of Relapsing Remitting MS and the inference that this moves onto the next stage at some point into Primary Progressive. A story of disability, loss of independence and madness (sorry cognitive impairment). Well it’s not a story with a happy ending is it?

At this point I feel I should use one of my favorite quotes:

“Life may not be the party we hoped for but while we're here let's dance”

That sums it up really for me. I had my first relapse at the age of 48 and it took me four months to recover. I woke up in the early hours one morning (having spent the previous week feeling very tired and unwell) completely numb on my right side from the top of my thigh to my toes and so the journey into medical examinations and tests began. As the relapse took hold my balance and mobility were badly affected (only able to walk with assitance) and I suffered various other problems including the 'MS Hug'.  By the end of that year, I’d had a second relapse (optic neurosis this time) and the official diagnosis of MS.

Now on a positive note (I know what your thinking, about time!) that was two years ago and currently I am still driving (my sporty Mini), I walk independently and I’m a step mum for two young (primary school) children. We've had two holidays this year (I actually managed all the steps up to Edinburgh castle!) and I get on with life, this new life of mine with MS. It’s not all plain sailing and I currently have some ongoing pain that I’m trying to get under control but it’s getting there.I appreciate there must be lots of other people out there like me at the earlier stages of this uncertain journey and I hope my blog may be of some help to you as it’s not all doom and gloom. It is very much a mind set of how to cope with the uncertainty of a diagnosis of MS and where that may lead you.

Please leave me a comment if any of this strikes a chord with you.