Multiple Sclerosis

Many years ago as a teenager, I had a knee condition which eventually led to ineffective surgery, followed by long-term anti-inflammatory treatment for what was thought to be a form of arthritis. I had pain in my knees which came and went. On the worst days I could hardly walk, and then it would all vanish again as quickly as it came. Very odd, but just one of those things that I learnt to live with.

Fast forward to when I started driving. After much trial and error I settled on container work as my best way forward, that way my bad patches weren't an issue. All sorts of other weird stuff happened on occasion but I blamed it on specific things at the time and carried on. I had backache, which I put down to a bad seating position, changed the position, the back ache eventually faded. My shoulder went funny, sharp pains, blamed that on a dodgy P-cab Scania and bad gear stick position. I had bouts of “sinusitis”. In fact I ran the gauntlet of just about every minor but painful or debilitating condition on the GP's list, and STILL felt constantly like hell. I started to feel like a total hypochondriac and stopped going to the doctor's until whatever it was this time became unbearable.  An attitude which resulted in two bouts of surgery on my lower spine to clear abscesses caused by sitting at an angle. I was pregnant when it first happened and post-natal the second time, so sitting oddly wasn't anything to write home about. All very odd, but I was a box jockey so what the hell, onwards. I have always had a benign tremor as it runs in our family, but I started shaking like an alky in the morning, except I did it all day long. The sinus thing seemed to shift to one side of my face on and off, I tripped over everything, I fell out of my truck head first on several occasions and it became a standing joke amongst my colleagues. If it was possible to injure yourself on something, I did. My husband got so used to me being covered.....more

Professional Drivers Association

Raising Standards

Multiple Sclerosis Society

MS provides support and information for people with Multiple Sclerosis......more

National MS Society

The National MS Society is committed to building a movement by and for people with MS that will move us closer to a world free of this disease.

To ignite this movement, we have developed a new language and look to help people better understand what it means to live with MS.......more