How Did I Get Here?

In the Beginning...
I have always had an interest in woodworking. As a kid, I loved watching New Yankee Workshop. There was just something about seeing Norm Abram cut up pieces of plywood and hardwood into various shaped parts and then putting them all together. It fascinated me. Perhaps that explains my love of Lego as a child, as well. Actually, the thing I loved about Lego was following all of the directions PRECISELY to get to the final finished piece. I’m kind of weird like that.

When it came time for high school, I still had a fondness for woodworking, but I never followed through with it by taking shop class. I had developed other interests by then, specifically drafting and computer programming, so I started to pursue those instead. Once I figured out how difficult computer programming was, I went the way of drafting.

A few months prior to graduation, I decided I didn’t want to go to college, so I enlisted in the United States Air Force. I had scored very highly on the ASVAB in school, so my options for a career path were almost limitless. I wanted to head back in the direction of computers again. It may not have been programming, but something in the way of computers nonetheless. That all came to a crashing halt when I had my eye test done and I was diagnosed with color-blindness. It’s not really bad (I have problems with certain shades of darker colors), but it was enough to derail my plans for a computer career in the Air Force. I instead opted for another career path and headed on my way to serve my country.

By the time my first four years were up, I still didn’t really have an idea as to what I wanted to do with my life, so I opted for a six-year re-enlistment instead. I plodded along until about my 8-1/2 year mark when I started to get that computer itch again. I started going after some of the basic IT certifications and I finally built my first computer. Looking back, that computer sucked, but I at least put it together from scratch all by myself and I could customize it any way that I wanted. I was finally committed to computer hardware as a career path.

Adios, Military
It is now 2005. By this time, my most recent enlistment was about to end and I was getting tired of military life. I had been at my current duty station in Maryland for almost six years and I didn’t want to move again, especially since I had been with my then-girlfriend, Lisa, for almost three years and I didn’t want to have to leave her behind for another duty location. Also, the job prospects in that area were too great to pass up, so I made the decision to separate from the Air Force after 10 years of service. I got a job with an IT company and worked my way up to head hardware service technician working on desktop, laptop and server repair. Come the following year, I finally had everything that I wanted; a great job, I was married to Lisa, we were done with renting an apartment and had our own house.

Then, in February 2011, my father passed away suddenly from what turned out to be cancer. That hit me a bit hard, but I pushed onward until about a year later when my mother started having her own health problems. After some long talks with our family and with work, Lisa and I decided that it would be best to move closer to help my mom in Florida. We had always talked about moving to Florida when we’d go to visit my parents, but Lisa’s job was always the sticking point. However, it turned out she was able to remotely do her job from home without any issues. Lisa’s employer let her keep her job and just work from home.

A Sign of Things to Come
I think it was around the time that my dad had passed that I started getting these occasional bouts of slight numbness in my fingertips and my toes. I didn’t think much of them at the time, and they went away after a few days, so I just dismissed them. Along with the occasional finger and toe numbness, I was noticing something going on with my neck. When I would bend my neck forward, I would get a tingling sensation that would travel down my back all the way to my feet. It was a bit intermittent, but when I did notice it, I REALLY noticed it. It wasn’t a painful feeling, just a rather strange one. I went to a walk-in clinic to see if I had maybe pinched a nerve or something, but the doctors there couldn’t really diagnose the problem. They referred me to a neurologist for further evaluation. I gave the neurologist’s office a call to schedule an appointment and I was put off by the almost six-month wait for an appointment. I decided not to bother and went on with my life (a big mistake as it turns out).

It’s now September of 2012, and we finally sold our house. We still needed to find a rental house in Florida, so all of our stuff was put into storage while we temporarily moved in with Lisa’s parents. Come October, we finally had a place in Florida, so we packed up a HUGE U-Haul and both of our vehicles. With the assistance of Lisa’s mom, we made the trek to Florida. I was driving the U-Haul, Lisa drove my truck and her mom was driving Lisa’s SUV. Lisa still had to return back to Maryland for work until she got everything finalized for working from home in Florida, so after most of the unpacking was done, she and her mom went back to Maryland. I was left by myself to finish unpacking the few boxes we had left and to start my new job as an IT technician at a local mental health and rehabilitation center.

The Point of No Return
After a few months, I noticed that the numbness I was feeling only slightly on and off over the last year or so was coming back. The problem this time was that it was getting worse and beginning to move up my body. After a couple of days, my feet got to the point where I was having a hard time driving because I couldn’t feel the pedals very well with my feet. After I went home from work one day for lunch, I messaged them that I was having problems driving and that I needed to see a doctor and wouldn’t be back.

At the time of the worsening numbness, there was so much going on in my life. I was on my own in the rental house and still unpacking. I was at a new job that I was growing more and more unhappy with by the day. It wasn’t my coworkers either. They were all very nice people who were trying to teach me everything I needed to do my job. I was just not comfortable AT ALL with the environment surrounding my work. In addition to all of this, I was having to deal with my mom on a constant basis.

You see, about a week before I was to start my new job, I went over to my mom’s house to borrow a lawn mower so I could cut the grass at the rental house. I opened the garage to go into the house and I started to hear her screaming my name. I opened the door to the house and found her flat on her back on the floor. My mom had apparently fallen during the last day or so and couldn’t get herself up. To make matters worse, the floor is made of ceramic tile over a concrete slab, so there’s not exactly any give in there. My mom didn’t want me to call for an ambulance (she was worried about paying for it, of course). Against my better judgment, I reluctantly agreed and was able to get her on her feet and help guide her to the bathroom. Then, I had the awesome task of trying to help her change her clothes, all the while doing my best to not see any more of her than I really wanted to (not my finest hour). To make a long story short, I got her to the hospital and she was treated. She was there for a few days and then sent to a rehabilitation/long-term care center for therapy.

During this time in therapy, I was driving down to her house after work every other day, which is about an hour drive one way, to check her mail and check on the house. Since it was late fall, by the time I got to her house after work, it was already getting dark, and the drive back to my house is not pleasant when it’s dark. All of this, coupled with going up to see her a couple of times a week after work at the rehab center, meant I had maybe one day of the week to myself to relax. I was so worn out I don’t know how I was able to get through the days at work.

I told Lisa what was going on with my feet and she and her mom immediately came back to Florida to help me. Lisa still needed to work from home (even though she wasn’t officially authorized to do it yet), but her mom was able to take me to my doctor appointments. I was referred to a neurologist who performed a few tests, including a spinal tap and MRIs of my neck and brain. In February of 2013, I was diagnosed with relapsing multiple sclerosis, or MS. Apparently, the problem I was experiencing with my neck is called Lhermitte’s Sign, and it is often a precursor to a diagnosis of MS. I was in shock, but I at least had a diagnosis and I could begin the process of starting a treatment.

Rock Bottom
My relapse, or flareup, was quite severe. The numbness in my feet had traveled up my body to about mid-torso, and my fingertip numbness had gone up most of my arms. I had such a lack of strength and spacial-awareness in my hands that I had to hold a glass of water like a small child with a sippy cup. As an IT guy, I couldn’t do anything with a computer or type worth a damn (I could type 70 WPM prior to the flareup). Holding a pencil…yeah good luck with that. The simplest tasks were a mighty struggle. Even sitting down was uncomfortable. When I would sit in a chair at the dining room table, it felt like I was sitting with a golf ball pressed against my butthole (I still can’t understand that one). My absolute low point was when I was using the bathroom one day. I was struggling so horribly with the simple task of trying to wipe my own ass that I almost had to ask Lisa for help because I could barely grasp the toilet paper. That was my rock-bottom moment and I was almost reduced to tears.

Thankfully, my neurologist had me on a strong steroid regimen to help reduce the effects of the flareup. Shortly after that, I was put on the drug called Rebif to help fight off any further chances of MS relapses. Rebif is a three-times-a-week injection that can be done at home via the aid of an auto-injector. I don’t have problems with needles, so I wasn’t really that concerned with the whole procedure.

Nowhere to Go But Up (Maybe)
My overall condition had improved to the point where, about a month or so after my initial diagnosis, I was finally able to go back to “normal”. My hands still were not 100% with feeling, but I could at least drive myself again. I accompanied Lisa and her mom back to Maryland so that she could finish up the paperwork for her final move to Florida. All seemed right with the world again once we were both back in Florida together. However, after a few months of giving myself the injections, I was starting to freeze up when trying to hit the button on the auto-injector. Not every time, but a lot of the times when I was doing my shots I would feel a little bit of pain after hitting the button and it was growing more and more difficult to press that button. I would always associate that clicking sound of the auto-injector button with pain. Eventually, I simply couldn’t do it anymore and Lisa had to give me the shots.

Life continued for a few more months until my mom had another fall in her house which resulted in a broken wrist. It was at that point that Lisa and I made the decision to move my mom out of her house and in with us for a little while. This turned out to be a much more difficult proposition than either of us could have imagined. I love my mom, but she was just so set in her ways on certain things it was driving Lisa and I crazy. What was worse was that my mom had type-2 diabetes and was not following a proper diet, no matter how hard we tried to ingrain that in her.

After another few turbulent months had gone by, and another couple of trips to the hospital for my mom for various things, in November 2013, I started to have another MS relapse. It wasn’t anywhere near as severe as my previous one earlier that year, but I was put on a strong steroid regimen for a few days and that halted the flareup rather quickly. I hadn’t fully recovered from the first flareup, but I wasn’t debilitated to the sippy cup stage I had previously fought through.

At this time, it had finally occurred to me that my trigger for an MS relapse appeared to be prolonged periods of high stress. And believe me, prior to my first major incident and the months having my mom living with us, I was under A LOT of prolonged stress. Even in Maryland, prior to moving to Florida, I was having some stressful times with things going on at work (to the point that I was already looking for another job, which my boss understood and supported me), stuff with my mom and trying to sell our house. It just wasn’t a constant, everyday kind of stress like I had in Florida. With that knowledge, it became abundantly clear that my days of working for someone else were over. I broke down one day talking to Lisa and told her how I was feeling about everything. She was more than understanding and behind me 100%, something for which I’ve been eternally grateful. We’re fortunate enough that her job pays quite well and we are still living comfortably just on her paycheck.

Since the Rebif didn’t seem to be the right treatment for my MS, my neurologist decided a stronger form of treatment was necessary and we decided that I should start on a drug called Tysabri. This was an infusion that was given every 28 days instead of shots three times weekly. I was happy to be done with Rebif. It is an effective drug for many people with relapsing MS, and has been around for many years, but it just wasn’t working for me. The side effects I experienced while on that drug were simply not worth it, either. After a few months of treatments on Tysabri, I was back to almost 100% from my big relapse over a year prior. The best part, for me, was that I did not feel ANY side effects from Tysabri. I’ve been on this drug since around February 2014 and I’ve never felt better.

The End is Growing Nearer
It’s around February 2014 at this point, and Lisa and I decided that we couldn’t handle taking care of my mom anymore, so we found a good assisted living facility in the local area and moved her in there. Over the next year, she was having more health problems while at the assisted living facility. After yet another trip to the hospital, the facility couldn’t provide the level of care my mom required, so they wouldn’t allow her to stay there anymore. In February 2015, my mom wound up staying at the rehab/long-term care center where she’d stayed on-and-off over the previous couple of years.

Fast forward to late October 2016, and my mom’s health had deteriorated drastically. I think the loss of my dad five years previous really sent her down a path from which she could not return. She finally passed in November 2016, ironically on the anniversary of my last day in the Air Force. She was finally at peace and could be with my dad again. I had already grieved for her when the doctors told me she was getting towards the end, so her death didn’t hit me as hard as my dad’s did.

A New Beginning
A couple of months later, Lisa and I were fed up with renting our house and finally decided to buy again. We couldn’t really find anything that was to our liking in the housing market, so we opted to build a new house instead. Fast forward to September 2017 and, after a short hurricane delay, we finally moved into our new house. It has everything we were looking for. It’s got a huge kitchen with TONS of cabinet and drawer storage (a far cry from one of my apartments that had ONE single drawer in the kitchen) and a three-car garage. I’ve always wanted to have a workshop setup in a two-car garage, and now I’ve got my wish.

I had already acquired some power tools through the years, but I was wanting to outfit my shop with many of the last tools I would hopefully ever need. With some money I’d been saving up for a while, in April of 2018 I started to outfit my shop with the power tools that I’d always wanted. It was agonizing trying to decide from which manufacturer to choose, but I finally just went with my gut and bit the bullet. Slowly but surely, my garage workshop was taking shape. With the addition of my first woodworking projects to outfit my workshop with storage and work surfaces, I was well on my way to that woodworking dream I’d always had in the back of my mind as a kid.

The Next Chapter
I’m not a big social media person. I have a personal Facebook account, but I have very few friends on there as I have a private account. It’s just not my thing to have every aspect of my personal life out there for everyone to see. Not to mention, I’m just not on there that much. However, in September 2019 I decided that I wanted to enter the world of social media via Instagram. I created my Instagram account @mikes_ms_woodworking and posted my first pictures. I wanted to document my journey into a life of woodworking and living with MS. I hope to inspire others who are dealing with MS, or anything else for that matter, to try something they’ve always thought about but were too scared because they thought their condition might hold them back. In addition, I think it’s only fair to show my support to the endless list of makers I’ve seen on YouTube and Instagram who have provided inspiration for most of my projects and from whom I’ve learned so much. Getting more exposure for all of these great makers is my way of thanking them for everything that they do for, not just people like me, but for the countless others who enjoy their content and perspective on woodworking and making in general.

I’ve only recently (April 2020) started working with materials other than plywood for projects. I’m starting small for now. Lisa needs a bunch of picture frames of various sizes for the many cross stitch projects she’s completed, one of which was for me. I’ve got so many things that I want to build that I don’t know where to begin. All I can do is just take my time, pick a project and see it through to the finish. There will be mistakes. There will be failures. There will be setbacks. There will also be skills acquired and knowledge gained because of those mistakes. I’m looking forward to all of it.

I am currently 46 years old. MS has been a part of my life for a number of years, and will continue to be for the rest of my life. Despite this, I consider myself very fortunate. I have a great support system with my family and friends, and I have not had an MS relapse since November 2013. There are countless others who struggle mightily every day with this condition in its various forms. I hope that one day there can be a cure for this horrible disease. Until that time comes, I will continue to fight the good fight for those who cannot by simply living my life to the fullest and doing what I love for as long as my body will permit.