My first baby girl will be 5 in two weeks. Two weeks! Wow. Later that week, my third baby girl will be 1. I can not believe it! And the crazy part is neither of them, or their sister for that matter, were ever “supposed” to exist.
I was diagnosed over 21 years ago with Multiple Sclerosis. MS is a neurolgical disease that affects the central nervous system’s (brain and spinal cord) ability to communicate with the rest of the body. Since it affects the central nervous system, which controls the whole body, it can affect any part of the body. Any part. It looks different on everyone. For some it causes only mild issues, for others it causes severe disability.
When I was first diagnosed, there was very little treatment. They could give you steroids to help when things got really bad but due to the side effects of the mediations, doctors often required your symptoms to persist for 5-7 days before they would prescrible the steroids. And there was no preventative treatment and definitely no cure.
A lot has changed in 21 years. There are now several medications that have been shown to slow the progression of the disease and newer treatments that have shown great promise in stopping the disease from getting much worse, but none are cures.
Due to getting sick when I was so young, I was told by several doctors that I would most likely never have kids. I doubted if I would ever get married. Who would want to marry someone so sick? Especially when in my mid-20s when I did 15 hosptital stays in 3 years, a couple of those stays lasting a month while I went through therapy to regain my ability to walk. Both times I went home in a wheelchair. Things looked pretty bleak.
Surprise, surprise, in the midst of it I did find a man who loved me. And shortly after we met, a friend recommended a neurologist who specialized in MS. He changed my treatment plan, to be more preventative in nature, instead of waiting for a downturn to do the IV steroids, we began doing them on a schedule, every 3 weeks. It was nice to not be in the hospital. Let me tell you. But it was still hard. And I still thought I would never have kids. I was so glad I could again walk, but I desperately wanted a family. But I thought kids deserved a healthy mama, not what I would be able to offer them.
Then, as sometimes happens with MS, I went into remission. My hubby and I started talking about a family. My neurologist was all for it. I went off all my meds, and 11 months later we had Caitlyn. I stayed healthy. I did not need any medications. And then along came Sue. Again, I stayed healthy. I took up running and began running 5k races!!! Every step is a celebration and a silent Hallelujah to the Lord for bringing me to health.
Then came Patrice.
I continue to be very healthy. My neurologist now talks about my disease being mild. And I love that.
No longer do I wake up every morning wondering if I will be able to walk, move my hands, sit up, instead I wake up counting how many times the baby gets me up. Way better I tell ya!
Yesterday I made a new bloggy friend. She is marking 2 years of remission from MS. And that is a very big thing. I celebrate with her and hope you will too.
I am also linking this up with Sunday Best at Feels Like Home. Check out the other posts!
Survive til you Thrive!
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