The start of the journey

I was asked a question by my doctor last week, that shocked me.  To me the answer was obvious but it made me realise that I take a lot for granted.

My doctor asked me if I was still managing to work.  I’m a qualified solicitor and work in central London for an international insurance company.  It’s a good job, which I can be intensely passionate about and hugely annoyed with at other times.  

In my spare time I kayak and canoe, no hardcore waterfalls but little bubbly bits.  Some reading this may question this as I am mighty good at swimming next to my boat too.

I’d gone to the doctor with a muscular pain in my chest – from coughing.  I was walking and talking and had earlier in the week been in the gym.  A kayak trip was planned for the weekend.

The question threw me, why on earth would I not be able to work?

A year ago I was diagnosed with relapsing remitting MS.  It has made me realise that even amongst the medical profession there is still a lot unknown about this, what the limitation on you are and how it works.  So I’m sharing what it is for me, the journey and how I try not to let it stop me.

They’ll be some history here of the journey to getting a label from February 2017 and some updates on the weird and wonderful that happens.  This won’t be a story of trial and adversity and it isn’t there to get your sympathy.  This will be a tale of This Girl Can and does and may help others realise quicker than I did that this is not the end of the line.

There may be lots of winging about travel, training for a rather long swim, trying to stay fit and do too much.  If you are not broken you are not trying – right?