What is it actually like to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at 40? This week I sit down with my best friend of 28 years, Taryn, for her first-ever interview about life with MS — the strange early symptoms she ignored for years, the nine months of doctors not knowing what was wrong with her, the MRI that changed everything, and why she never cried once.

We talk about the journal entry I wrote on her birthday — a year before her diagnosis — when I noticed her pulling away and couldn't figure out why. We get into what it's like to parent four kids with a chronic illness, why she refuses to be pitied or babied, how our friend group learned to joke about it (and why that's exactly what she wanted), and what she'd tell anyone whose life gets flipped upside down in the middle of it.

Whether you're living with a chronic illness, love someone who is, or are just trying to figure out your forties — this one's for you.

In this episode:

• The first noticeable MS symptoms — and the weird early warning signs (electric shocks, wrist pain, slurred speech) that doctors missed for years
• How long it took to get an MS diagnosis, from "it's probably your hip" to MRI lesions and a neurologist
• Why Taryn never cried — and whether "just keep grinding" is a coping strategy or a superpower
• Feeling like an inconvenience: girls' trips, wheelchairs, and what her friends did right
• Parenting four kids with MS, and the husband who won't let her be negative
• Turning 40 with a progressive chronic illness — and not having a midlife crisis about it
• Her advice for the newly diagnosed, and for anyone whose friend is going through it: don't pity, don't baby — let a bitch live

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Let a Bitch Live is a podcast about reclaiming your life, one small experiment at a time.

New episodes weekly. Follow along and connect with Cori:

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