At the Crossroads

Mandy, wonderful post.  The situations which each person with MS will encounter along this path we share are unique but often have great commonalities.  I know that there is no way I could ever maintain a traditional 40-hour/week job, but that was an understood thing when I decided to go into music.  My schedule has always been anything but traditional.  Now I choose to teach only four days a week and the era of having 44 students is long gone.  It's not clear how much I could continue to cut back and still be considered 'employed.'  Such is the life of a freelancer.  You hang in there and made those decisions when the choices become obvious.  I wish you the best.

Thank you for this post. I've seen so little on the struggle to make the decision to cut back work or to leave altogether. For the past couple of years I've set goals for myself to "hang in there" for a few more months or a few more weeks or just for today. It's kept me going. I still work full time but it's taking its toll, both physically and emotionally. I love my job and the feeling like I'm accomplishing something, with my degree and with my life. And I wonder who I will be -- after all these years of focusing on building my career -- when I finally have to leave work. It's not an easy decision or process to go through. Thank you for writing about it and I look forward to following more of your posts.