My MS story begins

I spent months trying to automate my job, and I got quite a bit of it offloaded to my computer. When the day started, the programs I needed came up without needing to be manually launched. I had shortcuts in my browser that would switch between subdomains on the site I was working on, without having to type anything. I created templates for responses or common phrases I would use in reporting/communication that were inserted with a quick keyboard combination. Automated, quality assurance “bots” scanned my work for common errors and for anything that might be flagged and sent back for me to redo. I was cutting out as much of the tedium as I could.

Despite my efforts, having amazing performance numbers (doing 3x the tasks that all of my other team members were doing, with a career-long 100% quality score at that job), I found out I was getting laid off. The last day was supposed to be May 1, but when I came back from using as much of my accrued paid-time-off, I found out they wanted me to stick around for 2 more months because I was so efficient. Though miffed at the audacity that they would still string me along, expecting me to do my finest work even though I was still losing my job, I committed to be the better person and do my best, just to prove I was better than them. (You can clearly see my humility, there, can’t you?)

I left that week with a determination to do everything I’d always done. Admittedly, I was somewhat grateful for the extra buffer I now had to get my side business in order so I could transition it to full-time work when my two months were up. Unfortunately, my body turned against me.

May 5, I was realizing something was wrong. It was a Saturday, and I wanted to use it to recover from the rough week at work. Instead, I was fighting extreme and unusual fatigue, numbness in my left arm, and I was getting weaker as the night came.

The next day, I felt even worse. I walked into walls, even though I could see them. My mind was heavy and I still had a hard time keeping my eyes open.

Convinced I was dying, I ended up in the Emergency Room. After an MRI, the neurologist on call said he was pretty confident I had Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The nurse who delivered the diagnosis to me told me how most of the people he knew with MS went about their lives, hardly affected. I listened with disbelief. How can anyone feel like I felt right then and somehow later go around like nothing was really affected?

There was also the other challenge: how do I finish at my work, now? How do I run my business and keep paying my mortgage? How do I afford anything?

It was never really clear what I should do, but I did start to rely more desperately on the automation techniques and scripts I had developed. These little bots of mine became life-savers. I was able to do some decent work as I pushed through my last months at that job. I also leaned on those systems to help my work in my own business.

I have made great progress over the last few years, being less and less affected by the lingering symptoms of my first MS attack. Now that I'm a bit more stable, I'm focused on building even more helpful scripts that can keep my work going, even when I'm not up to the work.

I'll be sharing these techniques in the email newsletters, other blog posts, and courses here on this site, so stick around if you're interested.