It's been a long time!

I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone since my last blog entry! I obviously have not been very good at updating and completing my blogs about the trip. What is most important is that the trip, a year and a half later, is like the gift that keeps on giving. Since the trip I have moved, traveled, found a wonderful new job, and met the love of my life whom I am now engaged to! So much change in realistically what some consider a short period of time. But as I have learned life continues on and what you do with that time is all up to you. Several of us who participated in the climb wrote and published a book called "More Than A Mountain: Our Leap of Faith" that is now available on Amazon. Each chapter is written by a climber, telling their story, be it from the climb or before. It is an inspiring book filled with hope, emotion, and some comedy ;) March is MS Awareness Month and I was recently asked by a friend for some pictures from the climb and some words about life with MS. She is a physical therapist who owns her own business and wanted to feature me in her monthly newsletter to patients, friends, and colleagues. I am very touched by this and I hope that my story will inspire someone else however it may. This is what I wrote to her: "Shortly after being diagnosed I used to have a saying "Don't tell me what I can't do. Instead tell me what I can do and I will exceed your expectations". I recently realized that the only voice that ever told me what I couldn't or shouldn't do was my own. Not my doctors, not my friends or family. I think when I was given the diagnosis of MS, the fear was overwhelming and I imposed restrictions that I did not even realize I had done. The Kilimanjaro trip helped give me a new found sense of what my life could be like in spite of such a diagnosis and helped me learn to push through a label like MS. Somewhere on that mountain the fear of MS left me and helped me regain my life. Now, a year and a half later, I still find the fear of the "what if's" for now or the future still present themselves and so I draw from that experience to give me strength to get through. What would I say to others with MS... Those four words "You have Multiple Sclerosis" are not the words anyone ever wants to hear. The disease is not a choice, but your reaction to it and the life you live after is. Make every moment count and just maybe the life you live after being diagnosed is greater and more fulfilling than the life you lived before."