⚠️ Please read with care: This blog shares personal, sometimes painful experiences. My intention is to support and speak honestly not to harm. I’m not a professional, just someone who understands how hard it can get. If you're struggling, you're not alone please reach out for professional help.

Living with MS at 66 – The Brutally Honest Survival Guide

Let’s not dress it up. Living with MS at 66 isn’t a gentle stroll through the park with a pastel cardigan and a green smoothie. It’s trench warfare — against your body, against fatigue, against medical “options” that sometimes look suspiciously like experiments dressed as treatments.

This isn’t a hope-and-prayers blog. This is the black comedy version: what actually works when you’re in the thick of it.

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1. Keep What You’ve Got Working, Working “Use it or lose it” isn’t motivational nonsense — it’s MS reality. If your legs, arms, or hands still work, use them. Every day.

- Stretch. - Grip something. - Do chair yoga. - Pretend the resistance bands aren’t plotting against you.

Small, daily effort beats one heroic attempt followed by three days of living as a decorative plant.

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2. Fight the Brain Drain MS doesn’t just attack your body; it tries to shrink your headspace. The cure? Use your brain like a gym.

- Read. - Write. - Argue. - Do puzzles. - Talk bollocks with friends (penguin debates optional).

Because idle brains shrink faster than wet bread.

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3. Anti-Inflammatory Life Without the Pill Parade Food and habits matter. No snake-oil, no magic powder.

- Whole foods > processed sludge. - Oily fish, nuts, green veg — boring, but your body thanks you. - Stay hydrated (fatigue + dehydration = double brain fog). - Vitamin D — don’t mega-dose, just don’t let yourself run on empty.

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4. Manage Fatigue Like It’s a Job Energy is currency. Spend it wisely.

- Learn your “cut-off point” — stop before you crash into furniture. - Nap without guilt. Strategy, not weakness. - Don’t waste your coins on things that don’t matter.

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5. Symptom Hacks (Practical, Not Magical)

- Spasticity: Stretch, warm baths, magnesium. - Pain: Heat pads, pacing, distraction. If legal/accessible — CBD or cannabis can help some. - Bladder issues: Boring but effective — timed voiding. Avoid caffeine ambushes before outings.

No miracle cures here, just what works.

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6. Build Your Backup Crew Have two or three people who get it. Train them before the crisis, not during it.

Because nothing says “awkward” like explaining spasticity mid-spasm.

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7. Defend Your Autonomy You don’t owe anyone compliance. Ask every medic:

- “What’s the actual benefit for me, at my stage?” - “What’s the cost?”

If they can’t give you a straight answer, keep your dignity and walk.

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8. Keep Something Fun in the Diary If you don’t have something to look forward to, MS wins twice. Big or small, it doesn’t matter:

- A trashy TV binge. - A coffee shop trip. - A sarcastic chat online.

That little spark keeps you human.

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Bottom Line MS at 66 isn’t about “beating it” — it’s about outsmarting it. You’re not going to stop it, but you can choose how much it dictates your life.

Spend your limited coins on what matters. Ignore the pressure to buy into chemo-lite “solutions” if they don’t serve you. This isn’t about quantity anymore; it’s about quality, and about laughing in the face of the absurd.

Dark humour is armour. Use it.

I write in ink and fury, in breath and broken bone.
Through storm and silence, I survive. That is the crime and the miracle.