Well here goes I have been diagnosed with M.S. since the age of 17 I’m now 48 so have seen a lot of med’s come and go. Have work the entire time have owned business been married have had 5 kids 4 with my first wife and one with my new wife, plus a step daughter and 3 grand kids.
It wasn’t easy when I was told I had M.S. but told myself I could do it! For years I took little to no medication other than prednisone for the times it kicked up. That’s how it started my entire left side lost the feeling of touch; pins and needles were there but couldn’t tell you if you were touching me.
Hot became cold and cold became hot only on my left side. Can even remember the day before I woke up sick, was cashing out the business I was working for sitting on a steal stool and one side was hot and other was cold, thought staff had heated one side up to mess with my head when I stood up to feel it with my hand it was cold right hand then I moved the stool and it was hot that was my left hand that really sent my mind into a spin.
I drove my 30 min drive home with one side hot and one side cold trying to tell myself I was just over tiered. Woke up the next day and everything was foggy. Weeks of test that’s what they did in 1981 than in 1984 a spinal tape closed the deal.
Hundreds of treatments of prednisone and from the start of Bataseron injections to the Rebbif of today baclofen, amantadine and way too many to list over the year’s. They called it relapsing remitting so that seemed to be something I could handle it and I did. Years of establishing my business my home and my family were taken away not by M.S. by the end of my first marriage.
Beat to the ground financially and mentally my M.S. reared its ugly head. As weeks turned to years I fought to get my health back and my life. My 4 children all ended up with me so pain or no pain I started our life over building a small business from nothing, my doctors had made me apply for disability and I had but here in B.C. we have PWD Persons With Disabilities and they helped me get it started and within a year it was self-supporting.
I had moved from Northern B.C. to Southern to start a new life I have no family other than my kids and my In-laws that supported me through the divorce of their daughter. This is where I met my wife now we had a wonderful little girl and my kids love her so much it was awesome. The heat in Southern B.C. is extreme to say the least and as time went on my M.S. was getting harder to manage, so we made the dissection to move North.
Where I had done so well there for years health wise.
I had reached my happy place had the best partner and still do awesome kids and a dream job in sales. Then one day sitting at my desk I sharp pain grabbed my left side thinks turned white and a ringing sound overwhelmed me, it passed in minutes but there was now what felt like a rock in my chest.
So to the doctors I went a scan showed that there was something not right with my heart so test after test. Till the day came were I was air ambulance to Saint Paul’s Hospital where they ruled out heart attack but had no answers other than that. The chest pain went on and on and still is there and but has now been accompanied with headaches loss of most the use in my legs and arm plus the added bonus of tremors.
Never had much cognitive problems but now I do I must repeat myself a lot the kids tease me about it. It has been a year of downhill health and worry not for me but my family thankfully the job I had taken has health insurance that has paid me every month for the past 6 months and EI paid me sick benefits the first 6 months.
My Neurologist calls my chest pain a huge because my M.S. has never affected my right side from my waist to my face is why it feels like a crushing pain only on my left side. Now I sit in limbo with good days and bad, walking across the house is a challenge and even typing this was hard left hand goes where it wants to and written the same thing over and over so reread and delete over and over this has taken a week so far.
Some days just wish it would end and others just want to go back to work and all to be normal this is the worst I have been so far don’t want to give up hard to care when your life as you know it has changed to the point you don’t feel like I have any control of my future. I can no longer drive safely my left eye works when it wants can’t turn my head without losing balance or causing a white out to start, my minds in a fog most of the time.
So that’s me in a nut shell used to be glad I had this disease cause I knew I could handle it better than someone else but I think 31 years of this has beat me down.
** Moderator's note - Post broken into paragraphs for easier reading. Many people with MS have visual difficulties that prevent them from reading large blocks of print. **
It wasn’t easy when I was told I had M.S. but told myself I could do it! For years I took little to no medication other than prednisone for the times it kicked up. That’s how it started my entire left side lost the feeling of touch; pins and needles were there but couldn’t tell you if you were touching me.
Hot became cold and cold became hot only on my left side. Can even remember the day before I woke up sick, was cashing out the business I was working for sitting on a steal stool and one side was hot and other was cold, thought staff had heated one side up to mess with my head when I stood up to feel it with my hand it was cold right hand then I moved the stool and it was hot that was my left hand that really sent my mind into a spin.
I drove my 30 min drive home with one side hot and one side cold trying to tell myself I was just over tiered. Woke up the next day and everything was foggy. Weeks of test that’s what they did in 1981 than in 1984 a spinal tape closed the deal.
Hundreds of treatments of prednisone and from the start of Bataseron injections to the Rebbif of today baclofen, amantadine and way too many to list over the year’s. They called it relapsing remitting so that seemed to be something I could handle it and I did. Years of establishing my business my home and my family were taken away not by M.S. by the end of my first marriage.
Beat to the ground financially and mentally my M.S. reared its ugly head. As weeks turned to years I fought to get my health back and my life. My 4 children all ended up with me so pain or no pain I started our life over building a small business from nothing, my doctors had made me apply for disability and I had but here in B.C. we have PWD Persons With Disabilities and they helped me get it started and within a year it was self-supporting.
I had moved from Northern B.C. to Southern to start a new life I have no family other than my kids and my In-laws that supported me through the divorce of their daughter. This is where I met my wife now we had a wonderful little girl and my kids love her so much it was awesome. The heat in Southern B.C. is extreme to say the least and as time went on my M.S. was getting harder to manage, so we made the dissection to move North.
Where I had done so well there for years health wise.
I had reached my happy place had the best partner and still do awesome kids and a dream job in sales. Then one day sitting at my desk I sharp pain grabbed my left side thinks turned white and a ringing sound overwhelmed me, it passed in minutes but there was now what felt like a rock in my chest.
So to the doctors I went a scan showed that there was something not right with my heart so test after test. Till the day came were I was air ambulance to Saint Paul’s Hospital where they ruled out heart attack but had no answers other than that. The chest pain went on and on and still is there and but has now been accompanied with headaches loss of most the use in my legs and arm plus the added bonus of tremors.
Never had much cognitive problems but now I do I must repeat myself a lot the kids tease me about it. It has been a year of downhill health and worry not for me but my family thankfully the job I had taken has health insurance that has paid me every month for the past 6 months and EI paid me sick benefits the first 6 months.
My Neurologist calls my chest pain a huge because my M.S. has never affected my right side from my waist to my face is why it feels like a crushing pain only on my left side. Now I sit in limbo with good days and bad, walking across the house is a challenge and even typing this was hard left hand goes where it wants to and written the same thing over and over so reread and delete over and over this has taken a week so far.
Some days just wish it would end and others just want to go back to work and all to be normal this is the worst I have been so far don’t want to give up hard to care when your life as you know it has changed to the point you don’t feel like I have any control of my future. I can no longer drive safely my left eye works when it wants can’t turn my head without losing balance or causing a white out to start, my minds in a fog most of the time.
So that’s me in a nut shell used to be glad I had this disease cause I knew I could handle it better than someone else but I think 31 years of this has beat me down.
** Moderator's note - Post broken into paragraphs for easier reading. Many people with MS have visual difficulties that prevent them from reading large blocks of print. **
Comment