#bethybright

Mary Jo: The Third in a Series

I have to be honest. When I started this series about the surprising and wonderful people that have come into my life as a result of having multiple sclerosis, most of the folks who made the list are people I’ve known for quite some time. I’ve had MS for six ridiculously long years. The number of people both in-real-life and on the socials who have impacted me in amazing and unexpected ways is…

The first warm days of summer

The forecast said it was going to be warm today and it was. The central air was welcome and set conservatively at 70, you hope that will be enough for these first hot days and nights but it’s hard to tell.

This is an old house and old houses are finicky. The first floor is comfortable. But the second floor where I set myself up to watch television before I sleep will be hot. Hotter than the…

4.6 + 11 + 1 = one hot mess

I’ve never been good at math.

I was a writing major in college. Even more, I was a creative writing major (with a minor in political science but who cares about that) and I was then and am now terrible at math. I can’t add numbers in my head. I can spin sensible words out of just about any old thing but math? Numbers? I’ve learned that’s what Excel is for. And that calculator app on my phone.

Wishing I had one of these

New hair…same old me.

I’ve said before that I’ve never run a marathon before. So when people tell me this experience is a marathon and not a sprint, I struggle to put that into any kind of relevant context for me, the non-runner, the committed non-athlete. I have friends who have run marathons so I have some idea of what’s involved merely by being an observer. But personal experience with…

The subtle art of not panicking

When I decided to go for this new approach to my treatment, I made some promises to myself. Maybe they were more like challenges that I presented to myself than promises but I decided to treat this experience the way I’ve always treated my work: No matter how bad, intense or scary things might get, I would believe in my ability to figure it out and doggedly refuse to even consider any…

And then she slept

I’ve been meaning to update the blog with my post-Lemtrada experience sooner than this but here’s the thing: I’ve been asleep.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog you understand how hard I try to not let this disease define me. You understand how much I hate my limitations and refuse to allow myself to accept anything less than close-to-normal. You also understand how much mental energy I’ve…

Musions on Infusions: 20% Down

Who knew when I painted this two panel self-portrait oh-so-long ago that it would come in so very handy over the years.

I When I started this Lemtrada journey on Monday I had every intention of doing a daily blog describing the day-by-day experiences of the treatment. After my first day I struggled with that idea quite a bit.

The thing is, the first day was harrowing y’all. It wasn’t something I…

When a new chapter begins in someone’s MS treatment, suddenly it’s not hard to come up with blog content anymore. Suddenly one’s life is full of things to think about, research, talk about, schedule, plan and carry out. All of the sudden your mind has something to wrestle that isn’t the same old bag of excrement that its been wrestling with for the last several months. All of the sudden there…