Ailsa Sutcliffe

Sleeping giants leak spores in the permafrost

It is difficult to communicate the multiplicity of MS symptoms simply. Analogies are helpful. But the unfortunate truth of the matter is that no two cases of MS are the same; lesions vary in size, location, and severity. We are connected by this progressive, bodily invasion, yet we are entirely alone in our experience. I look…

Living with the neurological kudzu vine

MS, like the kudzu plant, affects every part of the body. It ravages the nervous system, our very own perennial vine, smothering and blocking signals, snapping tendrils as it spreads. You can’t uproot it and replace the soil. It’ll just keep coming back.

Why I’ve stopped reading about illness

The creeping awareness that your body will never be the same summons the same emotional response as grief; the insidious loss of agency over movement and cognition feels like a betrayal, like something has been snatched from beneath you, like someone you love has gone, and is never coming back.