All change on the home front......

Hi there to anyone who reads my blogs.  I've been AWOL for a few weeks as life has been pretty hectic. So what's been happening then?  Well works been busy as always but its been lovely to have the two bank holidays weekends and the weather has been gorgeous.  It was rather nice to have an extra bank holiday thrown into the equation for the Royal Wedding.  It was lovely being able to witness such an affair (only on TV) but it was wonderful all the same, I though it went exceptionally well, a lovely moment in history and a very classy event. It's a fairytale story,  the Prince marries a commoner.  Well she's not exactly a commoner but her family come from a very ordinary background and yes it's not been such an ordinary life for them over recent years and they have money but it's money they have worked for. 

So what's been happening in my world.  Well two big things have happened since I last blogged.  Firstly I have a date to start DMD's and I got my first delivery of Avonex (my drug of choice) yesterday and first injection is planned for the 19th of May.  Although that's a pretty daunting thought I feel positive about starting DMD's. How I look at it is, if all goes well, they will reduce the frequency of any relapses and if they do occur the drugs will help to reduce the length and severity of them and slow down any disease progression too.  I think I'm starting off at a very good place as I have pretty much recovered fully from each relapse I've had without any permanent problems so it's better to start them while the going's good I think.  Another reason I want to get started on things as soon as possible is because hubby and I are hoping to try for a baby towards the end of the year. This leads on to the next big thing.......

It's taken hubby and I a long long time to get to this point where we are planning to try for a baby.  It's been a difficult journey but finally we are in the right place to try.  Last week my very lovely (but very sore) hubby had a very delicate operation, a vasectomy reversal. Ouch!!!! It certainly hasn't been fun for him but he is recovering well.  Now I shan't be going though the ins and outs of why he had it done in the first place, but I can tell you it's been a long and difficult journey for us too get this place.   Apart from the financial aspect of having to pay for a private operation, it's been a big decision.  As we all know having children is a big commitment and isn't easy at the best of times but then you add something like MS into the equation and things can get even more difficult. Now I know many people have MS and have had children, some before the diagnosis and some have chosen to go ahead after their diagnosis.  It wasn't a light decision for us, several questions kept coming up, is it fair for us to have a child knowing my diagnosis?  What happens if I deteriorate?  These are pretty big questions and not simple ones to answer but in the end we have decided to leave it in fates hands, we are now in the position where we can try for a baby, so it's a matter of seeing what happens now.

Now some might say why worry about these things, don't let MS get in the way of your live, live life to the full, do what you want to do and I am normally one of those people but I suppose because of our situation we've had more time to debate things.  The worry for us is based on symptoms I have experienced, if some of these symptoms occurred when we had a child for example balance issues, co-ordination problems then that could be a major issue if you  were looking after a baby.  The conclusion we came up with in the end, we both really want a baby, yes I have MS but I am in pretty good health (I could certainly do with getting a but fitter), we feel we could offer a lot to a baby and have a great support network of friends and family around us.  So taking this all into consideration and the fact that people a lot worse then me have had children and manage very well, we decided to go for it.

The plan is to try later on this year, I want to give myself a chance on Avonex before I start thinking about coming off it for babies, also Hubby's consultant advises it's best to give things 6 months before trying for a baby.  So all I can say is watch this space, I shall hopefully have some good news in the next year.  One thing I am going to do my best not to do is stress about things and get obsessive about falling pregnant, if it happens it happens if it doesn't, well , that's something we will just have to accept and deal with. According to the consultant, the operation has about a 45% success rate at this point.  The odds could be worse, let's hope lady luck will be on our side.............