Hello, and welcome to Adapting Life. I’m Nick, I am 30 years old, and I was diagnosed with MS in 2008. The last 8 years have been some what of a blur but at the same time the slowest and without doubt the most challenging of my 30 years.

I’m certainly no writer, as you’ll find out – although I’d like to be. I just really want to share my experiences of having MS and my day to day life. Hopefully I’ll show you that you can still live a full and happy life and share how I’ve learnt to live with the condition.

“It’s Multiple Sclerosis” it’s the only three words I really remember hearing the consultant saying. I’d say I was taken back but to be honest I’d already prepared myself for it. However, I’ve found though over the last 7 years that you never really come to terms with it. It’s an ever changing condition and even in the good days it finds a way of just giving you a friendly little reminder it’s there.

Click here to find out more about the condition if you want to.

Some days feel impossible, I can’t lie and sometimes I just feel like giving up but i don’t…..

… You see this was the hand I was dealt and I can’t change that – MS has no known cure- yet! So I just change the way I live. I adapt. Just because it stops me doing certain things doesn’t mean I can’t do others, and maybe it has taken me down a whole new road and got me to try things I never would have done; meeting people I never would have met; and becoming someone I never would have been.

I still work, still socialise and do all the things I want to – I’ve just learnt I can’t do it at the pace I used to all the time. I need to eat different foods and to relish in the delightful grogginess of an afternoon nap. I now make plans so I can make the most of things – although I don’t always stick to them – just ask Katherine, he he! (Katherine is my partner in life, and partner on this blog – you can read her side of things here).

Some days are harder than others, but MS will never become me; I just adapt. I am Nick. I have MS, it does not have me.