Happy New Year!

Posted On January 2, 2021January 2, 2021

Happy New Year! 2020 was a year to remember, and one to forget. As 2021 gets underway, what can we look forward to in this new, hopefully healthier, new year.

I thought about doing a “2020 in review” type post but decided against it. It was such a dark year for so many of us, why revisit that. I could boil it down to pandemic, lost job, shielded. Riveting reading I’m sure.

No New Year Resolutions

Did anyone make new year resolutions this year? 2020 might have taught us that making resolutions and predictions is fool’s game. Mother nature laughed at us last year as the pandemic upended almost the plans we may have made. Ok, so no year in review and no resolutions. What to write about in this first post of 2021.

Bring Out the Magnets

Well the first week of the year sees not one but two trips to the hospital. On Monday I am getting an MRI of my brain to see if there is any change over the last year. My last MRI was in November 2019 and encouragingly there were no new lesions. Since then my symptoms have been pretty stable so fingers crossed for similar positive news from this scan. It did take a good three months from getting the scan to receiving the results, so it’ll likely be March before I find out.

This scan will take place at a mobile MRI unit. My appointment letter provides some byzantine instructions for finding the unit, including navigating by Oor Wullie statutes. This will be a first. This has lots of potential for getting lost.

Back to the Routine

The very next day, it’s back to the neurology building for the latest monthly blood and urine checks. This will mark two years of such tests. It amazes me that it is two years already. The time has passed in a flash. When I was considering treatment options, the five years of tests post-Lemtrada sounded intimidating. Yet here I am, almost at the halfway stage already. So far, the results have been good, with no signs of the possible side effects. Fingers crossed again that things continue on this path.

What does this tell me? Rather than making predictions or resolutions, I find that MS has changed my perspective. Making grand plans or proclamations of change isn’t necessary because if my health continues in this positive way, everything else is a bonus.