I am always stumped by the question,"when did you know you had MS?" I wasn't like many of you who got out of bed one morning only to fall flat on your face which was the first inkling that something was wrong. I'm now 68 years old and it was in college that I began to notice symptoms.
Every summer during the hot weather I would visit my family doctor to tell him how unusually tired I felt. As the years went on I would visit my own doctors to report that not only was I tired but I felt that my left leg had a sandbag attached to it. Every year I added another symptom - my left side was losing feeling, I had trouble concentrating and finally I had double vision. My doctors weren't insensitive to my concerns but there were really no good tests for these symptoms.
This went on until I developed the double vision. For the first time I was frightened. I showed up without an appointment at the office of a neurologist who had been treating me for migraines. As horrible as the migraines were the silver lining was that they led me to an extremely knowledgeable, skilled, caring neurologist who was informed on state-of-the art testing and treatments. In about three weeks I had my answer: I had Myasthenia Graves.
And you were expecting me to say Multiple Sclerosis, weren't you? I was surprised as well. For the next ten years most of my treatments consisted of steroids and plasmapheresis and I did pretty well. Then the treatments and medications that had kept the MG under control stopped working. Now I was worried. My neurologist took advantage of some of the tests that had recently become available and the surprise was that it appeared that in addition to the MG I also had MS.
My neurologist wanted me to have a second opinion so I went to Ohio State Medical Center where the MS diagnosis was confirmed. Both diseases have a lot of the same symptoms but completely different causes. Now for the tricky part. When the symptoms manifest themselves how was I to know which disease I had.
My neurologist emphasized that it was critically important that I understand the differences so he coached me, drilled me and when he left to go to another hospital I felt reasonably confident that I could distinguish between the two diseases.
I've only been tested once and I passed with flying colors. I now have a new neurologist at the same hospital and he is equally sensitive to my two diseases and knowledgeable in the treatment of them. Oh yes, and three years ago I was diagnosed with narcolepsy which is also an auto-immune disease. Who knew? My health has become more complicated and sometimes I say that I've won the trifecta of neurological diseases.
It's been fifty years since those first symptoms appeared and there are things I can't do that I used to do but I continue to be happy with my life. What keeps me going are the wonderful people in the MS community that I've met, people whose paths wouldn't have crossed mine had it not been for the disease. I wish the same for all of you.
** 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. **
Every summer during the hot weather I would visit my family doctor to tell him how unusually tired I felt. As the years went on I would visit my own doctors to report that not only was I tired but I felt that my left leg had a sandbag attached to it. Every year I added another symptom - my left side was losing feeling, I had trouble concentrating and finally I had double vision. My doctors weren't insensitive to my concerns but there were really no good tests for these symptoms.
This went on until I developed the double vision. For the first time I was frightened. I showed up without an appointment at the office of a neurologist who had been treating me for migraines. As horrible as the migraines were the silver lining was that they led me to an extremely knowledgeable, skilled, caring neurologist who was informed on state-of-the art testing and treatments. In about three weeks I had my answer: I had Myasthenia Graves.
And you were expecting me to say Multiple Sclerosis, weren't you? I was surprised as well. For the next ten years most of my treatments consisted of steroids and plasmapheresis and I did pretty well. Then the treatments and medications that had kept the MG under control stopped working. Now I was worried. My neurologist took advantage of some of the tests that had recently become available and the surprise was that it appeared that in addition to the MG I also had MS.
My neurologist wanted me to have a second opinion so I went to Ohio State Medical Center where the MS diagnosis was confirmed. Both diseases have a lot of the same symptoms but completely different causes. Now for the tricky part. When the symptoms manifest themselves how was I to know which disease I had.
My neurologist emphasized that it was critically important that I understand the differences so he coached me, drilled me and when he left to go to another hospital I felt reasonably confident that I could distinguish between the two diseases.
I've only been tested once and I passed with flying colors. I now have a new neurologist at the same hospital and he is equally sensitive to my two diseases and knowledgeable in the treatment of them. Oh yes, and three years ago I was diagnosed with narcolepsy which is also an auto-immune disease. Who knew? My health has become more complicated and sometimes I say that I've won the trifecta of neurological diseases.
It's been fifty years since those first symptoms appeared and there are things I can't do that I used to do but I continue to be happy with my life. What keeps me going are the wonderful people in the MS community that I've met, people whose paths wouldn't have crossed mine had it not been for the disease. I wish the same for all of you.
** 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. **
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