Hello, all!
I am one of those people who were blindsided by the diagnosis. Not because no one wants to hear it, but because the timeline between my first real attack and diagnosis was one week. I'm trying to feel grateful that I have an answer, a diagnosis and can start meds to slow the advance of the disease, but at the beginning of the month I was little old me and now this part of my world is upside down.
In April 2010, I had the pins/needles, numb flesh, temperature sensitivity in my right leg. My GP thought it was sciatica, and when the special exercises didn't help she gave me steroids. Problem solved.
The beginning of October, 2010 the same sensation came back. My left hamstring was really tight and I was walking strangely and it didn't seem to correspond to the sore muscle. A few days later I woke up one morning and noticed I had lost fine motor control in my left hand.
Hoping it was a pinched nerve, I called my GP. A couple of days later I was with a neuro, who after all sorts of fun testing involving tuning forks and safety pins sent me for an MRI. The MRI showed a c-spine lesion, explaining my immediate symptoms.
Two days later I had a brain MRI, and 12 lesions were found, including one in the corpus collosum. I gave 10 vials of blood last week to check for everything from West Nile to inflammatory antibodies, but am set to meet again with the neuro on 11/2 to start meds. While it's possible the blood will show I have something in addition to MS (hopefully that is unlikely), I have been diagnosed with MS and I guess I have to learn to live with it.
I'm in my early 30s, am married and have small kids, and now I have MS. I've had vertigo (BPPV allergy correlated) and central serous retinopathy, both of which I will investigate to see if they could be MS related or it they were just my body doing its thing, but with the steroids I am lucky to be feeling like me again with no active symptoms* and am having a hard time believing this isn't a dream.
I'm not sure what else there is to say, other than reading posts from the rest of you has been cathartic somehow. For all of you looking for answers or who took so many years to get some, you have my deepest sympathies. I think the only thing scarier about the diagnosis would be fighting to get one.
Just a few weeks ago, I had no earthly idea there was a darn thing wrong. At least if I have to have a crappy disease, I'm in good company with you all.
*OK, I swear I feel an odd cool sensation in my spine where the lesion is, but frankly the idea of a lesion on my spinal cord is wigging me out and I'm betting I'm imagining the weird feeling or that it is wholly unrelated. Or is it normal?
I am one of those people who were blindsided by the diagnosis. Not because no one wants to hear it, but because the timeline between my first real attack and diagnosis was one week. I'm trying to feel grateful that I have an answer, a diagnosis and can start meds to slow the advance of the disease, but at the beginning of the month I was little old me and now this part of my world is upside down.
In April 2010, I had the pins/needles, numb flesh, temperature sensitivity in my right leg. My GP thought it was sciatica, and when the special exercises didn't help she gave me steroids. Problem solved.
The beginning of October, 2010 the same sensation came back. My left hamstring was really tight and I was walking strangely and it didn't seem to correspond to the sore muscle. A few days later I woke up one morning and noticed I had lost fine motor control in my left hand.
Hoping it was a pinched nerve, I called my GP. A couple of days later I was with a neuro, who after all sorts of fun testing involving tuning forks and safety pins sent me for an MRI. The MRI showed a c-spine lesion, explaining my immediate symptoms.
Two days later I had a brain MRI, and 12 lesions were found, including one in the corpus collosum. I gave 10 vials of blood last week to check for everything from West Nile to inflammatory antibodies, but am set to meet again with the neuro on 11/2 to start meds. While it's possible the blood will show I have something in addition to MS (hopefully that is unlikely), I have been diagnosed with MS and I guess I have to learn to live with it.
I'm in my early 30s, am married and have small kids, and now I have MS. I've had vertigo (BPPV allergy correlated) and central serous retinopathy, both of which I will investigate to see if they could be MS related or it they were just my body doing its thing, but with the steroids I am lucky to be feeling like me again with no active symptoms* and am having a hard time believing this isn't a dream.
I'm not sure what else there is to say, other than reading posts from the rest of you has been cathartic somehow. For all of you looking for answers or who took so many years to get some, you have my deepest sympathies. I think the only thing scarier about the diagnosis would be fighting to get one.
Just a few weeks ago, I had no earthly idea there was a darn thing wrong. At least if I have to have a crappy disease, I'm in good company with you all.
*OK, I swear I feel an odd cool sensation in my spine where the lesion is, but frankly the idea of a lesion on my spinal cord is wigging me out and I'm betting I'm imagining the weird feeling or that it is wholly unrelated. Or is it normal?
"...the joy of the Lord is your (my) strength." Nehemiah 8:10
Of course, CSR could very well be accurate, but as my neuro-op said, a second opinion never hurts.
After all, as someone here once said : MS isn't for sissies!
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