80% of people at the point I am now will get diagnosed with relapsing MS withing 5 years. Ohh year I haven't been diagnosed with this yet!- They have to wait until I have three lesions or I relapse again. There are no medications for people at my stage of very very early MS. Nothing even as simple as a steroid that could help me get through a relapse if one of them is severe enough to make me unable to walk. If this happens on one of these mountains I want to climb I will be in an interesting situation for sure.
The other stat I have found out is that within 10-15 years of being diagnosed most MS patients need assistance walking (cane, walker) or actually cannot walk (wheelchair).
But however slim my chances may seam there is a bit of hope. Research has shown that improving diet and exercise, and reducing stress help reduce the number of relapses you have and their severity. Yeah it sounds basic and along the lines of 'the healthier you are the healthier you will be' but basically I have MS in my genetics and my only way I can deal with it this early on is to reduce all of the things in the environment that could trigger it or increase inflammation in my body. Despite the fact that I don't survive off junk food and I do exercise regularly I will be trying to eat healthier and exercising every day.
So that it that. I do have it but I may or may not be part of the stats that gets another relapse and gets worse or I could never experience another relapse again and live my life as if nothing happened (although this is the slimmer chance). I do not have access to any medication at this time either to prevent relapses or to deal with a relapse if it happens. I also need to go for MRI scans every 6 months probably for the next 5 years or until they see me get bad enough to diagnose. So the poking, prodding and scanning is not over!
Now that you have heard the bad news, on to the good part! I was previously complaining about how people reacted to my diagnosis. I would like to take that back. I was faced with needing to tell me work about my diagnosis, which I had held off on for a lot longer than I had wanted to because of very good advice from friends and family telling me that I shouldn't say anything at all until I know more. I see the reasons for all of that and people can definitely get screwed over by employers. Luckily mine are not like that AT ALL! In one week I will be starting a year of unpaid leave. That means I didn't have to quit my full time permanent job in my field. I was expecting them to get mad at me for leaving. I was expecting to have to quit. I didn't expect people to be so kind and understanding with something that nobody really understands very well yet.
With that huge weight off my shoulders I have began to pack for moving to Japan on the 26th of January. I will be living in Kochi Prefecture. William and I have rented a cute traditional style house right on the river. Rent is only $530 CAN per month and split between the two of us this is the cheapest rent I have paid in my life!
I don't really have much specific planned in terms of what I will do in Japan. I may try to teach English for the year or get some other random job. For the first few months I expect I will just relax and acclimatize/enjoy to the new language and culture.
Things on my bucket list for Japan so far are:
- Cherry blossom festival (anyone of them and possibly multiple)
- Anime convention (when in Japan....) with epic homemade costumes
- Try out birding buddy as both a visitor and as a local people can go with
- Visit the snow monkeys in winter at Jigokudani Snow Monkeys Park
- Karaoke in Japanese (and also English)
- Learn how to cook amazing ramen (grocery stores will be an adventure...)
- Visit the southern islands of Okinawa, Japan and enjoy the beaches and snorkeling
- See a giant salamander in the wild
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