In October of last year I was having some problems seeing out of one of my eyes (I'll explain more later) and I lost a lot of strength in my right arm. The loss of strength was odd because I am right handed. I was looking things up online and honestly thought I had had a stroke. Strokes run in my family and, even though I was 23, it seemed to fit. I made an appointment with my primary care and saw her a few days later. As I walked into the doctor's room she had a flip book on the counter and it was opened to a section talking about strokes. That really worried me even more. She did some tests and told me to go to the hospital and have an MRI done.
The neuro doctor came in after the MRI was done.
"You have lesions all over your brain. You have MS."
Those exact words. I didn't even know what he was talking about. What are lesions? I have heard of MS, Montel Williams has it. Did he have to be so rude?
He put me on steroids for three days (I was on a drip and had to go to the hospital each time.) The day after my MRI he called me and apologized for his bedside manor. That was pretty nice actually.
Since then I think my eyesight is back to normal but I am not sure. I know my strength isn't any better. I haven't ever seen that MRI and frankly I don't want to. I saw the one I had a few weeks ago and I'll be fine if I never have to see one again. When he said "lesions all over", he was not kidding. I'd like to reiterate that I am 24 years old. I've had different things happen that may or may not be related to the MS since I was 11, but haven't been checked until 23. Not only were there 10 or more in my brain but they weren't small. Also I had 3 small ones in my neck. Since I was diagnosed things just seem to be getting more and more worse. Fatigue seemed to have had me trapped in a zombie state for quite a few months. I slept up to 10 hours at night and then a four hour nap in the middle afternoon.
At first I didn't even know my memory was slipping. Almost anything that's happened in the last 2 years I don't remember. Things with my boys (Jami is 5, Colton is 4 and both are Autistic) I can barely remember a lot. I didn't remember what our Christmas decorations looked like, who people were, where I've been, movies I've seen. And I'm not one to forget. I remember the weirdest things from being as young as 2, when my grandmother passed away. My memory is now so bad I carry a little notebook around, when I remember to grab it, of course. As time goes by I start to realize that I remember even less about my childhood. I wonder if I should take a picture every hour just to remember other things. I also have a really short attention span now, which has never been a problem before. It has been a little cool sometimes. I was look through my folder on my computer for a book I was writing but I couldn't remember the name. Once I found it, none of it seemed familiar. I sat down and read what I have so far and it was like reading it for the first time, which gave me great insight to whether or not my book was even worth finishing. Poems were the same way.
I had one seizure when I was 17. It was four days after being on Welbutrin for depression. My doctor stopped the Welbutrin and that seemed to take care of the problem. I don't remember what month the next one was but I was 20. At the time I was popping Xanax like they were candy and that could have been why I had that seizure, but I'm not sure. Over the following 2 1/2 years I had 4 more before being diagnosed epileptic. I was already on Triliptol for bipolar so he just increased it to help with the seizures. And we thought it worked.
In April we moved to Tucson, AZ. In the last 7 months or so I've had 8 seizures. They have always been tonic-clonic seizures. Until about a month or two ago and I started noticing the twitching was getting more frequent. My doctor knew and just increased the Triliptol to stop the tonic-clonic seizures. Suddenly the myclonic seizures were even more frequent and "violent" for lack of better terms. I even have the same aura I have before I have a tonic-clonic seizure. My head will start twitching towards the side and whatever I'm looking at my eyes will fall. So my doctor has increased the Triliptol again. That worked pretty well after about a week of the increase and then they started happening again, but not as "violent". She increased the night time part of the dosage because they are worse at night.
Pain! I have always had problems with my skin hurting. It's like chills but all day long. Almost like when you're sick or something. You don't want to touch anything or be in the cold having actual cold chills because it just makes it worse.
As long as I can remember I have had problems exercising. I itch everywhere. It doesn't matter how long I've been working out, or even if I do it often or not. I itch beyond belief. I don't know if that has anything to do with MS or not, I'm just putting it out there.
My entire life I have had dental problems. As a child when my teeth came in I had cavities. At 13 or 14 I had braces that were going to be on for 3 years. After 18 months I had to have them removed because I had so many cavities they couldn't get to them all because of the wires and brackets. I now am considering dentures to avoid the trouble and pain from infected and broken teeth.
I believe that's everything as of now, but with my memory who knows what I've forgotten. I have a facebook that I check more often. ***You may put your FB name/account in your Profile for all registered, logged-in members to see.***
***Line spacing added by Moderator for easier reading. Many of our members have vision problems with large blocks of type.***
The neuro doctor came in after the MRI was done.
"You have lesions all over your brain. You have MS."
Those exact words. I didn't even know what he was talking about. What are lesions? I have heard of MS, Montel Williams has it. Did he have to be so rude?
He put me on steroids for three days (I was on a drip and had to go to the hospital each time.) The day after my MRI he called me and apologized for his bedside manor. That was pretty nice actually.
Since then I think my eyesight is back to normal but I am not sure. I know my strength isn't any better. I haven't ever seen that MRI and frankly I don't want to. I saw the one I had a few weeks ago and I'll be fine if I never have to see one again. When he said "lesions all over", he was not kidding. I'd like to reiterate that I am 24 years old. I've had different things happen that may or may not be related to the MS since I was 11, but haven't been checked until 23. Not only were there 10 or more in my brain but they weren't small. Also I had 3 small ones in my neck. Since I was diagnosed things just seem to be getting more and more worse. Fatigue seemed to have had me trapped in a zombie state for quite a few months. I slept up to 10 hours at night and then a four hour nap in the middle afternoon.
At first I didn't even know my memory was slipping. Almost anything that's happened in the last 2 years I don't remember. Things with my boys (Jami is 5, Colton is 4 and both are Autistic) I can barely remember a lot. I didn't remember what our Christmas decorations looked like, who people were, where I've been, movies I've seen. And I'm not one to forget. I remember the weirdest things from being as young as 2, when my grandmother passed away. My memory is now so bad I carry a little notebook around, when I remember to grab it, of course. As time goes by I start to realize that I remember even less about my childhood. I wonder if I should take a picture every hour just to remember other things. I also have a really short attention span now, which has never been a problem before. It has been a little cool sometimes. I was look through my folder on my computer for a book I was writing but I couldn't remember the name. Once I found it, none of it seemed familiar. I sat down and read what I have so far and it was like reading it for the first time, which gave me great insight to whether or not my book was even worth finishing. Poems were the same way.
I had one seizure when I was 17. It was four days after being on Welbutrin for depression. My doctor stopped the Welbutrin and that seemed to take care of the problem. I don't remember what month the next one was but I was 20. At the time I was popping Xanax like they were candy and that could have been why I had that seizure, but I'm not sure. Over the following 2 1/2 years I had 4 more before being diagnosed epileptic. I was already on Triliptol for bipolar so he just increased it to help with the seizures. And we thought it worked.
In April we moved to Tucson, AZ. In the last 7 months or so I've had 8 seizures. They have always been tonic-clonic seizures. Until about a month or two ago and I started noticing the twitching was getting more frequent. My doctor knew and just increased the Triliptol to stop the tonic-clonic seizures. Suddenly the myclonic seizures were even more frequent and "violent" for lack of better terms. I even have the same aura I have before I have a tonic-clonic seizure. My head will start twitching towards the side and whatever I'm looking at my eyes will fall. So my doctor has increased the Triliptol again. That worked pretty well after about a week of the increase and then they started happening again, but not as "violent". She increased the night time part of the dosage because they are worse at night.
Pain! I have always had problems with my skin hurting. It's like chills but all day long. Almost like when you're sick or something. You don't want to touch anything or be in the cold having actual cold chills because it just makes it worse.
As long as I can remember I have had problems exercising. I itch everywhere. It doesn't matter how long I've been working out, or even if I do it often or not. I itch beyond belief. I don't know if that has anything to do with MS or not, I'm just putting it out there.
My entire life I have had dental problems. As a child when my teeth came in I had cavities. At 13 or 14 I had braces that were going to be on for 3 years. After 18 months I had to have them removed because I had so many cavities they couldn't get to them all because of the wires and brackets. I now am considering dentures to avoid the trouble and pain from infected and broken teeth.
I believe that's everything as of now, but with my memory who knows what I've forgotten. I have a facebook that I check more often. ***You may put your FB name/account in your Profile for all registered, logged-in members to see.***
***Line spacing added by Moderator for easier reading. Many of our members have vision problems with large blocks of type.***
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