Hey y'all, I'm Stephanie, or Stevi, whichever you prefer. I'm 17 years old and I was diagnosed four months ago, just after Thanksgiving. I will say, it was nice to put a name to the symptoms at least--I had numbness in my left side at first, ever since the summer. I still remember the first time I was sitting in the car and said to my then-boyfriend, "What the heck? Babe, I can't feel my hand!" My family practitioner thought it may be a siatic nerve issue, and told me to come back in a few weeks if it didn't subside.
It did, a little bit. But suddenly, around November, it took a turn for the worse: I was always foggy and reacting a lot slower, and my balance was almost nonexistant. I felt completely out of control of my body, like my symptoms were controlling me instead. I was constantly afraid of tripping over my numb feet or something like that. My mom wouldn't let me drive anymore, and finally she just got scared enough that when she picked me up from work, she said, "We're taking you to the ER." Five days, countless blood tests, 3 MRIs and a lot of gross hospital food later, I was DX'd. I stayed out of school til after winter break, and I went through a few weeks of tutoring sessions to stay caught up, as well as intensive physical and occupational therapy.
Now I'm happy to say I'm back in school and counting down the days til gradution like everyone else. It's incredibly frustrating at times, because some of my symptoms haven't gone away quite yet, but I'm slowly learning to take my life one day at a time. That's the hardest part for me--getting over my pride, depending on my fabulous support system, and learning to deal with the unknown. I'm still in glee club and working out the way I used to, so I've got that going for me. At least I can still move lol.
So that's my story. Looking forward to hearing from others about their experience, it's nice to see I'm not the novelty that people are making me out to be.
It did, a little bit. But suddenly, around November, it took a turn for the worse: I was always foggy and reacting a lot slower, and my balance was almost nonexistant. I felt completely out of control of my body, like my symptoms were controlling me instead. I was constantly afraid of tripping over my numb feet or something like that. My mom wouldn't let me drive anymore, and finally she just got scared enough that when she picked me up from work, she said, "We're taking you to the ER." Five days, countless blood tests, 3 MRIs and a lot of gross hospital food later, I was DX'd. I stayed out of school til after winter break, and I went through a few weeks of tutoring sessions to stay caught up, as well as intensive physical and occupational therapy.
Now I'm happy to say I'm back in school and counting down the days til gradution like everyone else. It's incredibly frustrating at times, because some of my symptoms haven't gone away quite yet, but I'm slowly learning to take my life one day at a time. That's the hardest part for me--getting over my pride, depending on my fabulous support system, and learning to deal with the unknown. I'm still in glee club and working out the way I used to, so I've got that going for me. At least I can still move lol.
So that's my story. Looking forward to hearing from others about their experience, it's nice to see I'm not the novelty that people are making me out to be.
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