Learning a New Normal

The early days of diagnosis are a blur I’ll never forget. It was like waking up in a body I didn’t recognise, with rules I hadn’t agreed to.

One day I was carrying on like usual, the next I was staring at my hands, my legs, my energy, wondering why they wouldn’t play along. Nothing made sense. And the more I tried to push through it, the harder it pushed back.

You don’t just get handed MS and carry on. There’s a grieving process. You grieve the future you thought you had. The plans you made. The version of yourself you thought was permanent. It’s brutal, like saying goodbye to someone who’s still alive, only it’s you.

Some mornings just dragging myself out of bed felt like I’d run a marathon. Some nights I’d lie there staring at the ceiling, begging for the world to stop spinning so I could catch my breath.

Routine became survival. Filling up the pill box. Shuffling the day around my energy levels. Cancelling plans when my body slammed the brakes. It wasn’t glamorous, it wasn’t brave. It was survival! But in those routines, I started learning how to live differently. Listening instead of fighting.

Respecting my body’s limits without letting MS have the final word.

And in between the chaos, there were small wins. Walking to the end of the road and back without collapsing. Getting through a morning without a nap. Laughing with my kids when I felt empty inside. Those little moments stitched themselves together and reminded me MS can bend me, but it can’t break me.

Learning a new normal isn’t neat. It’s messy. It’s ugly. It’s frustrating as hell. But it’s also real. And every single day I get up, no matter how slow, no matter how broken I feel, I prove to myself that life with MS doesn’t mean life is over.

It just means life looks different.

#MultipleSclerosis #MSwarrior #MSAwareness #inthistogether #beneaththetracksuit