I turned 40 at the beginning of Feb and I feel great!
Not physically...no...but mentally, I feel great. Got a lot of aches and pains at the moment, and I've been suffering from a lingering cold for the past couple of weeks which has left me with awful catarrh.
I feel great mentally, because I feel like this is the first 'milestone' birthday in a while. I had a wonderful few days with family and friends, and felt royally spoilt. It's not often I do things where I'm centre of attention, but I went with it and enjoyed it immensely. I was shattered afterwards of course!
If I'm honest, when I was diagnosed at 18, I assumed I would be in a wheelchair by the time I reached 40. I was convinced! Even though I wouldn't say it was hanging over me, it was often niggling in the back of my mind (after all, who knows what's going to happen...it's an unpredictable disease) but, no. I'm not. In fact I'm thriving.
I set myself a challenge to lose some more weight before my birthday, and I shed a stone over 6 months which was great (in fact showing me that I CAN do it)! I felt confident, got my hair done and felt like I could really ease into my forties with style.
Sure occasionally I have the odd wobble, where I think my mortality is catching up to me (don't we all?!), but overall so far so good.
Life is cracking, compared to what it could have been. My MS is stable, my bipolar is fairly manageable, and I'm going to lose more weight to get down to a healthy BMI. From there, surely it's onwards and upwards? I mentioned on another post that my consultant was really pleased with my health at the moment, considering i've been diagnosed for 22 years. Nothing is certain with MS, and I know how lucky I am. I do feel that it isn't entirely by chance though. I do tend to look after myself pretty well, trying to get as much exercise as my body allows, and eating a varied diet. I count my lucky stars that I am mobile, happy, healthy, and feeling positive.
It's times like this though where I need to thank my beautiful family and friends for all of the help and support they give me. Because of them, I lead a fairly low stress life, which of course, helps MS and mental health conditions. I don't have to work, which I'm eternally grateful for and I have to ability to bumble my way through life. Doing things when I feel well enough, and resting when I don't.
So here's to the future!
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