"Do you have a plan?"she asked.

9-22-25

(I don't even like the color orange lol)

As I was working a filling a wholesale order recently, I was thinking about my business, where I came from, how I got to here, and thoughts of where I am going. And I thought of something I hadn't thought about in a while.

In 2018, after being diagnosed with MS, I started a medication called Rebif. Shortly after my diagnosis, a Rebif nurse showed up at my house to show me how to give myself my own injections. Even thinking about on it now, it makes me nauseous! But at the time I was still in landscaping, I was still out on the job sites at times, and I wasn't doing great. I wasn't sure what my future held. I realize no one does, but I knew I was suddenly sitting there with an incurable disease and progression was inevitable with or without medication. But I was hopeful.

After chatting with the nurse in all my hopefulness of this new medication I was going on, we discussed my work. I mentioned that I realized that I wasn't going to be able to work in this field forever, especially out on the jobsite. She asked "Do you have a plan?"

I remember being a bit confused. And I questioned the question. I was 38 years old. I still felt I had time. I felt I had hope. I was super positive in this very very naive and innocent way, that i could beat this. Beat the progression. But. It was just denial.

I don't remember what I said to her to answer that question, but I remember the seriousness in her response telling me that i needed to discuss it with my husband and come up with a plan for my employment. I never ever thought I wouldn't be able to work. After she left, that question really weighed on me.

I didn't come up with a plan that day, or that year. I had no idea what I was to do. Financially, I didn't have a lot of choice.

But life threw me some curves, my emotions changed, I shifted. And without really realizing it, I made a plan. And that little plan morphed into where I am now. I may not be able to do this forever, I have no idea what this disease will turn into. For those who have this stupid disease, we never know how MS is going to affect each and every one of us. I could turn in a month and end up in a wheel chair, or I could make it to 65 and just need a cane. I don't know.

So what's my plan??? Welp, for now, it's to make every day count. Live it the best I can with the best attitude I can give it and just roll with it. And do everything I can to make Silva & Ore become the success I need it to be for me and my family.

That's my plan. A plan that I never really made consciously. It's a plan that life made for me.

-AJ