The day you hear the words “You have Multiple Sclerosis” is a strange moment.
It’s not dramatic like a movie scene. There’s no music swelling in the background. No slow motion realization.
It’s quiet.
A doctor explaining lesions. MRIs. An immune system attacking nerves. Medications you’ve never heard of. You listen carefully while they explain what MS is. You nod. You ask a few questions. Then you walk out of the office and reality begins catching up with you.
Questions start stacking up quickly.
What does this mean for my health?
What happens to my career?
How am I supposed to support my family?
For people working in technology, that last question can hit hard.
Many of the things doctors warn you about are things our industry quietly expects from us every day.
- Long hours.
- Stress.
- Late nights debugging systems.
- Cold server rooms.
- High-pressure outages.
For many engineers, that’s just the job.
So when someone tells you those exact conditions might make your illness worse, the question becomes unavoidable:
“What happens now?”
The Problem
A lot of engineers deal with health issues quietly.
Chronic illness. Autoimmune disorders. Mental health struggles. Physical limitations.
But tech culture doesn’t always leave room for those conversations.
Engineering environments often reward things like:
- Working late
- Grinding through problems
- Pushing through exhaustion
- Pretending everything is fine
That mindset works… until it doesn’t.
MS changes the equation.
Fatigue becomes real. Brain fog shows up sometimes. Stress hits harder than it used to. If you try to approach your work exactly the way you always have, burnout shows up quickly.
I had to learn that lesson the hard way.
What Most Engineers Get Wrong
When engineers face health challenges, the first instinct is usually the same.
Hide it.
Ignore it.
Keep producing.
Don’t let anyone think you’re struggling. That approach might work for a while, but it’s not sustainable.
The second mistake is assuming your value as an engineer is tied only to output.
Tickets closed.
Lines of code written.
Hours logged.
But the longer you stay in this industry, the more something becomes clear. The most valuable engineers aren’t the ones working the most hours. They’re the ones who think clearly, solve difficult problems, and help other engineers grow.
That realization becomes extremely important when you’re living with something like MS.
Lessons From Experience
I didn’t start my career in cloud engineering.
Like a lot of people in IT, I started young. I got into computers in high school. I spent time building and repairing systems before eventually joining the U.S. Navy as an Information Systems Technician.
For eight years I worked on everything from network infrastructure to managing million-dollar radio systems supporting real-world operations.
After leaving the Navy, my career moved through several roles:
- Internet installer
- Repair technician
- Help desk
- Server administrator
- Cloud engineering
- Eventually teaching Azure training to other engineers
It’s been a long road through the technology world.
Then MS showed up.
And suddenly I had to rethink how I approached everything.
Lesson 1: Your brain is your real asset
In technology, your body isn’t your primary tool. Your thinking is. Architecture decisions. Troubleshooting complex systems. Designing infrastructure. Solving problems others can’t. Cloud engineering rewards experience and problem-solving ability far more than raw stamina. That realization helped me understand something important.
My career wasn’t over.
I just needed to approach the work differently.
Lesson 2: Documentation saves you
Documentation is one of the most underrated habits in engineering. When you live with something like MS, that habit becomes critical. Good documentation helps when:
- Brain fog shows up
- You need to revisit something later
- Someone else needs to jump into a project
It also improves team resilience.
Let’s be honest. Every engineer has experienced the frustration of trying to troubleshoot something with zero documentation. That’s one reason I emphasize documentation during Azure training sessions.
Clear thinking leads to clear systems.
Lesson 3: Stress management matters more than you think
Stress doesn’t just make work harder. For autoimmune conditions, it can make symptoms worse. I had to become much more intentional about pacing work and stepping away when needed. Interestingly, this actually made me a better engineer.
Calm engineers make better decisions.
Working in Tech With MS
Technology careers have some advantages people don’t always recognize.
This field allows for things like:
- Remote work
- Flexible schedules
- Independent problem solving
- Asynchronous collaboration
For someone managing a chronic illness, those things can make a huge difference. A difficult MS day doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t work. It might just mean you focus on different types of work that day.
Things like:
- Writing documentation
- Architecture planning
- Reviewing pull requests
- Mentoring junior engineers
Engineering work is broader than most people realize.
The Power of Teaching
One of the best decisions I made was leaning into teaching and mentorship.
When you teach, several things happen:
- You reinforce your own understanding
- You help other engineers grow
- You build stronger technical communities
That’s one reason I spend time doing Azure training and sharing lessons learned from cloud engineering and DevOps engineering.
Knowledge in IT shouldn’t be hoarded.
It should be shared.
What You Should Do
If you’re an engineer dealing with MS—or any long-term health challenge—here are a few practical things that helped me.
- Protect your energy
Energy is a resource. Treat it like CPU or memory in a production system.
Schedule demanding work when your mind is sharp. - Document everything
Documentation is a force multiplier. It helps your team and it helps future you. - Focus on impact, not hours
Great engineers solve important problems. They don’t just stay online the longest. - Build supportive teams
The people around you matter. Healthy engineering teams support each other. - Keep learning
Technology changes constantly anyway. Azure training, DevOps engineering practices, and Terraform best practices keep your skills sharp and your career moving forward.
A Final Thought
Living with Multiple Sclerosis isn’t easy. Some days are harder than others. But one thing I’ve learned after years in IT is this:
Engineers solve problems.
Sometimes the problem is infrastructure. Sometimes it’s architecture. And sometimes the problem is figuring out how to keep moving forward when life throws something unexpected at you. If you’re building a career in tech while dealing with MS—or any serious health challenge—remember something important.
You’re not alone.
And your career is far from over. It may just take a different path than the one you originally expected.
Sometimes those paths end up being the most meaningful ones.
About the Author
Randy Bordeaux is a U.S. Navy veteran and technology professional with a career spanning repair technician roles, large-scale communications systems, and modern cloud infrastructure engineering.
After serving eight years as an Information Systems Technician in the Navy, Randy continued his career in civilian IT, working across multiple areas of technology before specializing in cloud platforms and infrastructure automation.
Today he shares his knowledge as a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), focusing on Azure, cloud architecture, and practical skills that help IT professionals grow in their careers.
Through this site and his GitHub projects, Randy documents tools, lessons learned, and training material with a simple goal:
Make technical knowledge more accessible and help others grow in the field.