Michelle LaJoie woke up one February morning 11 years ago with a numb arm.

She didn't think anything of it. Maybe she just slept on it wrong. But she took a trip to the doctor just in case.

After 18 months of tests, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

MS is an inflammatory disease that affects communication between the brain and spinal cord. the disease has a broad range of symptoms, but in LaJoie's case, she needs the assistance of a walker or a cane to help overcome muscular problems in her legs.

"it took a while to get used to this 'new body' that I've been given," she said. "there are restrictions. I have to take things slower sometimes. it can take a while for me to get going, and when my legs have just had it, I have to sit in my wheelchair and get pushed by my husband."

Her diagnosis has led the LaJoie family – her husband, James, and her sons Jacob and Alex – to take a lead in MS fundraising and awareness.

The family is participating in their 11th National MS Society "Walk MS" on March 19.

The fundraiser, which takes place at Lake Eola in Downtown Orlando, and at Rockefeller Gardens Park in Ormond Beach on March 26, has a goal to raise $535,000.

MS has no cure, but there are significant treatments and physical therapies available.

Over the last decade, LaJoie has gone through treatments and different forms of medications to learn how to "suck it up and deal with it."

"the biggest thing that I've given up in regret is playing with my kids," Michelle said. "Of course, I don't know many 14- and 16-year-olds who still want to play tag with their mother, but being involved in a more physical way … I do miss that."

Jacob is old enough to remember his mother before the diagnosis. He remembers horsing around in the yard, raking leaves then jumping in the pile, and throwing the softball around.

Alex was too young to remember what she was like before MS.

But pre-MS Michelle isn't whom the boys yearn for; they know what their mom has to deal with and she's as normal to them now as she would be without MS.

Alex and Jacob know her now as the Michelle who jokingly threatens to use her cane as a weapon at their sporting events, the Michelle who irks them and James by walking too slow, the Michelle who refuses to let MS get in the way of her beach trips.

"She's always around, it's just the little extra things I have to help her out with [that are different for me]," Jacob said. "aside from those things, it's pretty much normal."

It wasn't always so easy for Michelle to joke about the disease.

She had always been comfortable around kids, and she worried that her sons' peers would fear her because she was different.

"I didn't want children to perceive me as someone that they couldn't be around," she said. "At the elementary school a lot, I didn't want them to feel like they couldn't touch me – like I was going to break. It's OK to be interactive."

Michelle said that although he won't admit it, MS has put a strain on James, from pushing her around in the wheelchair, to helping her maneuver the house, to carrying her at the beach so she can get her time in the water.

On the plus side, she says, at least it all gives him a workout.

What Michelle struggles with now is to show that MS gives her limitations, but does not warrant pity. James says she does a good job of not showing whatever daily pain she goes through.

"I don't want to be the one that just sits in the corner, 'Oh my gosh I have MS and it hurts really bad today; I'm going to sit and pout,' " she said. "I don't want to drag people down."

Donors can pledge money to the LaJoie family for their participation in the MS Walk by visiting walkflc.nationalmssociety.org and searching for the group "Michelle's Mission."