Hey! So Glad You're Here.

Hi! I'm Monica. I am a 50-something former elementary school teacher, fur-mama, and lover of old houses, antiques, good tea, and books, now living with secondary progressive Multiple Sclerosis.  

 

When I first started Life By Design...Not Diagnosis in 2010, it was called My Road to Liberty, and I envisioned it as a public journal to document my experience with the experimental CCSVI (Chronic Cerebral Spinal Venous Insufficiency) treatment.

 

Despite my best efforts at the time, my MS symptoms were worsening. And so I made the decision to try this experimental treatment and document my experience.  Unfortunately, the treatment did not give me the results I was hoping for. But I continued to explore different therapies and programs, and shared my thoughts and experiences through the blog.

​

After seven years of blogging regularly, I began to question whether what I was writing about was worth sharing anymore, as I was not improving...in fact, I was getting worse! And who, in my mind, would want to read about, what I believed, were my failures?

​

Of course, I now realize the value in sharing, not only the triumphs, but the setbacks, challenges, and disappointments of living a life with MS. There is a sense of comfort in reading about and knowing that you are not alone in navigating this disease.

​

And so, thirteen years later, I rebranded this blog to reflect my refreshed way of dealing with MS. Because we should all live a life by design and not diagnosis...whatever that may be!

 

​

​

​