Update On Me

One week away from my 6 month follow up at Mayo and what seems like an eternity since my last post I feel like now is as good a time as ever to give an update on me and how I have been feeling lately.

I have thought about writing a blog post or needing to write a blog post for quite some time now but have just never gotten around to it. I then spent some time while driving in the car to and from work, why don't I have anything to write about? After some thought I realized that I don't have anything to write about because everything has been going pretty smoothly in my life right now. You always hear about how easy it is to praise God when things are going well and hard to praise Him when things are tough. I have found out that opposite is the case in terms of my health. It is easy to write about things when I am going through trials and much harder to write about things when everything is going great. I feel normal and like everyone else currently and thus don't feel like I have much to say. Which is strange and feels backwards but it is what it is.

Now to the update on my health since I have given you a short glimpse into how things have been going. Back in April when I was diagnosed I was having a lot of vision issues, balance issues, and issues with what I would describe as drop foot(the inability to lift your toe high enough off the ground to keep yourself from tripping). I took steroids when I was at Mayo to help with that and naturally overtime those symptoms start to fade. It has been long enough since those issues and symptoms that they have pretty much subsided which has been great. I still have vision problems when my body temp increases but things are way better overall.

When the kids sleep in and allow me to, I currently workout 5 days a week doing CrossFit. It is crazy the improvements I have made over the last couple months during my workouts. I started CrossFit when I was fairly out of shape, partly due to MS and partly due to a knee injury I had at the beginning of the year, and after doing the workout for a little while my legs would get really weak. When I was done doing a workout I sometimes felt my legs might give out on me but now I don't have that issue at all. I feel strong and feel really good.

I have read a lot about how the body is able to rewire itself and learn things again. Balance and coordination is one example of that and it has been amazing to witness this first hand. Being active and doing CrossFit nearly every day for the last 3 months or so has really helped with this. So much so that I am looking into participating in a CrossFit competition in the coming months. Hey, I have to satisfy my competitive side every now and then. :)

I am incredibly blessed to be feeling the way I am feeling. I am interested to see the MRI results next week and hear what the doctors have to say after 6 months. I am also cautiously optimistic with everything. I am pretty confident I haven't had any attacks since my diagnosis but looking back at all the attacks I have had over the years it was never during the summer. The summer was the quiet time and the winter or beginning of the year was when things got dicy. I don't know if that was from a decrease in exercise or possibly from the chronic sinusitis I have but something has been happening. So with that I am very curious to see how this winter goes. I plan to continue to be active doing CrossFit and I also plan to have some work done on my nasal cavities to try and help reduce the sinusitis so hopefully I am taking the necessary steps to combat any issues.

Long story short, I am incredibly blessed to be feeling the way that I am feeling. I have had amazing support from my family, friends, doctors, and nonprofits that have been by my side. I am heading into this appointment next week in a good spot mentally, emotionally, and physically and am anxious to hear what the doctors have to say. I will give an update next week after the appointment. Thank you for all your support and prayers so far. They mean more to me than you can ever know!

Take heart.

John 16:33