I started having more shocks in my mouth about 10 days ago. I have started taking Lyrica again to be able to sleep, eat and brush my teeth. I know it’s important to stay ahead of the pain, otherwise I will find myself unable to eat and losing weight.

This is difficult for me as I was just feeling like I was beginning to enjoy life again. I have a new hobby that has given me something to do and we were planning a weekend trip to the Gulf Islands.

Fortunately, this time I have a support team. It makes it much easier to ask for help as I don’t have to convince them that the pain I’m feeling is real.

When I had the rhizotomy, I was told that the worst-case scenario would be permanent pain. The best-case would be 3-5 years pain free. Although it’s only been 14.5 months, if they had offered me just one year pain free, I would have taken it.

This time I am holding on to the hope that I can be pain-free again. All of this is happening in the midst of the good news of the MRI I had on March 8, showing stable lesions and no new lesions.

Dear Friends,

Another year has passed and again, I am asking for support from you for this year’s MS Walk. The MS Society provides many types of supports to people with MS that are not available in the health care system. In addition, they are involved in significant advocacy for people with MS.

I am fortunate that I am ambulatory, I have a nice home, good food and a loving husband.

I am also fortunate that my disease is relatively slow in its progression. My severe facial pain has been gone now for fourteen months. I get occasional ‘reminders’ that there is something not quite right but I have been able to eat and talk without pain, and that is a blessing. I have numbness and tingling in my hands and feet but I can still walk and manage stairs with no problem.

Others are not so fortunate. Their disease is more aggressive and they live with increasing disability, and often pain. All of us have our own personal stories of tragedy, perseverance and sometimes even triumphs. Through these experiences we learn how important we all are to each other.

Never being one to ask for help, I have now found myself in the position of needing help and being vulnerable. We all know it could happen to any of us at any time. I just didn’t think it would happen to me so soon!

I would be honoured to have your support in the 2014 MS Walk.

The lives of over 100,000 Canadians would be greatly improved if we were able to find the cause and the cure for MS. And we won’t get there without the funds for research.

The link to my secure personal fundraising page can be found here: http://bit.ly/ND00UL

Any support you can provide the cause would be greatly appreciated.