One Year In!
Hello MS World! I just passed my one year anniversary of my new life with MS. So far it has been quite the ride. I guess the best way to describe myself is through my experiences since being diagnoses. I was diagnosed while living in Salt Lake City, Utah (I'm still trying to make a connection to the terrible air quality in the city) after my right eye went wonky and began drifting off. The funny thing about this is that I could still see out of it. I walked around for an entire week closing and refocusing my eye. Finally my wife, being the smart woman that she is, picked me up and forced me to go to the emergency room. I remember waiting for the neurologist to tell me I had a tumor. When it was announced that I most likely had Multiple Sclerosis I actually smiled. If I had known what the next year would be like, I'm pretty sure my reaction would have been quite different.
Just a few days after my diagnosis I began student teaching. I was getting a second degree in secondary education and only needed to teach for four months to be a certified, licensed teacher! It was also in those few days that I began taking Tecfidera. It was a match made in hell. Here I was piling the maximum amount of stress that I could onto a disease that thrives on stress, all while taking a drug that was completely destroying my ability to function as a normal human being. I tried to smile through the worst times and laugh at the absurd.
One day I was teaching about the Russian invasion of the Crimean Peninsula (it was a big story at the time) and suddenly my voice changed. I went from being an American to an Australian. I couldn't turn it off. The look on my student's faces said it all. What is up with this guy? This isn't even a good impression... What can you do in a situation like this but laugh? "Well ay, mates! I wonder if the blokes down under will be joining the discussion and help put an embargo on those crazy Russians." This got a few chuckles from my class and we moved on. Since then that thought has been my motto. Have a few chuckles and move on. Life is too damn short to be serious about the serious.
Good news! I achieved what felt like the unachievable, I was a licensed teacher. What to do now? Teach, you say. Nah, I'll move to Illinois where the politics are corrupt, the teachers are treated just slightly better than they are in Utah, and the weather is as unpredictable as a Tornado. At least I could breathe and my wife, also a teacher, was able to get a job that paid considerably better than the one she had in Salt Lake City. So here I was bouncing from one extremely stressful situation into another. Big move, job switch, life changing disease. I was clearly trying to hit all the major stressors in one epic go. Tecfidera was sure helping with the hotflashes, late nights, and random bladder issues.
Once my crap was moved, I settled into a nice routine. I took a job at a Family Video, you know, because retail is not stressful at all. I then began working on getting licensed in Illinois as a teacher. Easier said than done. Decided it might be better on my health if I took a year and became a substitute while slinging videos on the side in what ever accent I wanted. After all, Oscars have been won doing bad accents convincingly! All good things can't last however.
Family Video ran its course, so I exited stage left. I was offered a job working at an Alternative school for children with behavioral problems. Again, I did this because rather than listening to neurologists and doctors, I like to make my life very stressful. I'll save my stories from COPE Alternative School for other posts, but I'll just say I've heard vulgarity that would make a sailor blush. I'm still smiling as much as possible and working at understanding this silly disease as much as possible.
Not so side note, I have three cats. They are real jerks, but they are fluffy and cute, so they get to stay.
Just a few days after my diagnosis I began student teaching. I was getting a second degree in secondary education and only needed to teach for four months to be a certified, licensed teacher! It was also in those few days that I began taking Tecfidera. It was a match made in hell. Here I was piling the maximum amount of stress that I could onto a disease that thrives on stress, all while taking a drug that was completely destroying my ability to function as a normal human being. I tried to smile through the worst times and laugh at the absurd.
One day I was teaching about the Russian invasion of the Crimean Peninsula (it was a big story at the time) and suddenly my voice changed. I went from being an American to an Australian. I couldn't turn it off. The look on my student's faces said it all. What is up with this guy? This isn't even a good impression... What can you do in a situation like this but laugh? "Well ay, mates! I wonder if the blokes down under will be joining the discussion and help put an embargo on those crazy Russians." This got a few chuckles from my class and we moved on. Since then that thought has been my motto. Have a few chuckles and move on. Life is too damn short to be serious about the serious.
Good news! I achieved what felt like the unachievable, I was a licensed teacher. What to do now? Teach, you say. Nah, I'll move to Illinois where the politics are corrupt, the teachers are treated just slightly better than they are in Utah, and the weather is as unpredictable as a Tornado. At least I could breathe and my wife, also a teacher, was able to get a job that paid considerably better than the one she had in Salt Lake City. So here I was bouncing from one extremely stressful situation into another. Big move, job switch, life changing disease. I was clearly trying to hit all the major stressors in one epic go. Tecfidera was sure helping with the hotflashes, late nights, and random bladder issues.
Once my crap was moved, I settled into a nice routine. I took a job at a Family Video, you know, because retail is not stressful at all. I then began working on getting licensed in Illinois as a teacher. Easier said than done. Decided it might be better on my health if I took a year and became a substitute while slinging videos on the side in what ever accent I wanted. After all, Oscars have been won doing bad accents convincingly! All good things can't last however.
Family Video ran its course, so I exited stage left. I was offered a job working at an Alternative school for children with behavioral problems. Again, I did this because rather than listening to neurologists and doctors, I like to make my life very stressful. I'll save my stories from COPE Alternative School for other posts, but I'll just say I've heard vulgarity that would make a sailor blush. I'm still smiling as much as possible and working at understanding this silly disease as much as possible.
Not so side note, I have three cats. They are real jerks, but they are fluffy and cute, so they get to stay.
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