From 2024 to 2025: Some Small Changes

I have been maintaining this blog for some time, something of a labour of love for someone who likes writing. A little creative escape. The last year has been quite intense through MS progression and treatment and keeping the blog has helped me to make sense of things, to be quite honest. It is also good to make changes to keep things fresh and so I will start 2025 with a slight change of format for the blog. This will relate to categorisation of posts, the menus that support that categorisation and the pages that provide background to the categories. There is very little change in design and a short overview is below.

Looking Back

First some background. As related above, the last year has been quite challenging, perhaps the most difficult since I was diagnosed with MS back in 2013. Although not MS related a hernia operation led to a period of immobility that probably did not help to curb progression of physical symptoms. Also Ocrevus, whilst good in the long term, has a short term impact through stress, fatigue and impact on mobility. Immune system resets are fairly tiring!

For all that, there have also been amazing highlights. Meals, concerts, museums. Things that I thought were gone are back thanks to simple yet amazing walking aids and exercise. There is now so much to talk about. The format change will hopefully make that talking, or writing, a little easier.

New Sections – ‘That Thing… Multiple Sclerosis’ and ‘Ways of Escape’

The main change is a reduction in the number of sections, now just two. One will concern Multiple Sclerosis. I am not getting away from MS, that is clear, barring a miracle cure. So I will accept that write about the experiences of MS and how it impacts me as opposed to trying to ignore it. The other section will be on Ways of Escape, the fun things in life. This was previously via cycling which had a section of its own. My love of cycling and the freedom it gives me remains but the annual mountain or endurance ride is going to be more difficult due to the impact of MS progression. I can still undertake such challenges with an E-Bike and will continue to do so, it is important to have the experiences and to see my friends. But it is now about enjoyment as opposed to an act of resistance against MS. It will be nice to talk about other ways of escape as well.

Introductory Pages

The new sections will have introductory pages on my experience of MS and also the hobbies and pastimes that are alongside cycling. I won’t repeat too much here, take a look at the pages, links are above and at the foot of this post. These are not blog posts which I like to keep short but pages so they are longer, a little more text heavy. All personal but that is my choice. A blog is a personal thing after all.

Realistic Optimism

It is important to try to be optimistic. That has been harder this year, with the absolute low point being the failure to get up a single hill on an attempt to climb Col du Galabier. From that absolute low came the discovery of an E-Bike hire option and, the next day, I managed Col du Mollard. May not be quite the same but a nice feeling. Optimistic.

It is clear, from what I have written and will continue to write, that MS continues to spoil the party. The trick is not to let it spoil everything and to keep the world as open as possible. To have a little realistic optimism. It is also important to keep my mind stretched. Reading, studying. Trying new pastimes, within reason. Writing this blog. Stretching my mind and enjoying it as well.

I like words. I will continue writing them. Hopefully others will like some of them too.

I mentioned the new pages in the post above, including links. Reproducing them below, take a look!

• That Thing…. Multiple Sclerosis
• Ways of Escape