Hello again! I’m happy to report that at my most recent visit with my neurologist, it was said that I remain a boring MS patient with nothing new happening. That’s the goal!
It was a rough year for me where I realized the role that grief plays in any sort of recovery or mental well-being. We made the very unexpected and hard decision to put down my very favorite dog in the whole world, Winston, back in November. I always joked that he was my favorite child and the joke was that it was really only kind of a joke. I’ve always known that any kind of stress or illness would exacerbate any of my MS symptoms. I didn’t think about what managing grief would do to me. The depression along with the regular MS fatigue made it very easy to sleep 16+ hours a day which lead to brain fog and exhaustion whenever I was awake. Luckily summertime came which forced me to be awake during the day because…well…I had to be a mom all day. And thank God for that. Being an only child mom to an only child daughter has definitely had its challenges. The power struggles are no joke around here! But by the grace of God, this was the best summer I’ve had being a mom. We actually got along and enjoyed each others company all summer long and it was kind of a healing experience for both of us as we are learning together what it looks like to live without Winston. I don’t take this time for granted with her. She’s 10 and who knows how many summers we will get like this where we really like spending time together, so I soaked it all up.
There are many days where I forget that I even have Multiple Sclerosis and that is such a gift. I often forget until it’s about a week before I get my period and all of my symptoms come back a lot easier than normal and I panic thinking I’m relapsing and then I just realize what time of the month it is and I can breathe a sigh of relief. This is common with women who have MS so I know to expect it, but it still catches me off guard most months.
In 2 weeks I will go in for my yearly MRIs to see if there is any silent progression happening in my brain or spine. As for now, I am pretty confident that after 6 years and 3 months of not being on any disease modifying drugs to slow the progression, I believe that I remain in complete remission thanks to the amazing doctors who treated me in Mexico.
If you or someone you know is living with MS or other autoimmune diseases and you’re wondering if there might be a different path to remission through stem cell transplant, I’d love to chat and share more of my story.
If there are any updates after my MRIs that need to be shared or anything new that comes up, I’ll be sure to post about it here. Otherwise, I’ll be back with a similar post in 365 days.
Adios!
Adios, MS! 