Controlling my MS

It’s been two months since quit whole 30. I have been feeling good still, not great. But certainly better than pre w30. I can certainly clean up my diet a bit, but it’s a work in progress.

I learned on whole 30 just how difficult it is to work out and do whole 30. I’m constantly trying to figure out how to eat enough calories that I don’t gas out when I work out, but also not gain weight.

My whole life I’ve wanted to be a runner… I’m finally making that happen. I don’t necessarily love it, but I feel good afterwards. This week I ran three times, each time 2.5 miles or more. Never have I done that before!

Today I had my first real numbness during a run in the last few months. I was at mile two, or just before, when I realized that my left leg was completely numb from my mid thigh to my mid shin. It made it very difficult to keep going, because each step felt like my leg was missing a section and my knee might give out. (You can see in the photo that my original loop was much stronger with running and then a LOT of run/walk at the end.)I knew if I was in a race nobody would be able to come get me so I better keep training and teaching my body how to overcome this. For me I know that this is not disease progression, but rather a reminder of the attack at once had.

MS is so hard to define. It looks different on everybody, and to most people looking in, it looks like nothing.

For me I’m thankful that my course of the disease has not really limited me much, but I’m also painfully aware of what it’s doing to my body on a daily basis. Or more rather what it has the ability to do.

When I have these kinds of episodes like I had today, I know how important it is to cool my body down. As soon as I was able to get home I took a cool-ish shower and just relaxed for about an hour before I started out on other adventures. It’s been about 10 hours since I finished my run and I feel 100% normal now. One year ago I would’ve been recovering for a couple of days. I would say that’s progress in training my body, and that’s all that I’m trying to do. Sure, I’d love to be stronger, sure, I wouldn’t mind being skinnier, but I just want to be healthy. And I want my body and my disease to learn how to cope with situations that may arise. Because I have no plans of slowing down!

So to all my new MS friends I have met online lately, I know that it might be completely different for you, but if you’re able to get out and get active, I hope that you are. My original doctor told me as soon as I was diagnosed it was one of the most important things that I can do. It’s definitely helped me feel a lot better, and it could be part of the reason why I’ve only had the one major attack.

Cheers to a more active life!

❤ MS Andrea Jackson