Multiple sclerosis (MS) entered my life in 2013 with my wife’s diagnosis. We spent time learning to manage the condition and moved to another city to be able to draw on family support while understanding the nature of the disease. This learning curve steepened dramatically when cancer complicated her condition in 2015, leading to two years of treatment that pushed MS management into the background. When she achieved remission, we thought we’d found our new normal.

In 2023, ten years after her diagnosis, I learned I had MS too. I went from being a supportive partner to someone living with the condition myself. The medical reality was compounded by the psychological weight of uncertainty about career sustainability and whether I could maintain the professional identity I had spent years building. The persistent worry was whether disclosing this would mark me as damaged goods, potentially derailing any chance of promotion or career advancement.  This has prompted two years of reflection on my part on how chronic illness changes not just what we do as academics, but how we relate to the colleagues who make that work possible.

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