10 year breast cancer survivor, dx with ms

[andi b]

Long story short, I was cut loose from my oncologist recently after 10 years and then got optic neuritis and was diagnosed with MS.

Lots of autoimmune disorders in my family - a sister and 2 cousins with MS and two brothers with some sort of autoimmune eye disorders. I have no other "real" symptoms, although there have been a lot of things over the years that I thought were just normal stuff going on (or related to the breast cancer) that turned out to be on the MS symptom list.

I am actually feeling really well, just started on Avonex about 3 weeks ago, still titrating the doses, full dose this Saturday. It seems to be going well.

I look forward to learning lots from all of you.

[KoKo]

Hello Andi

Welcome to MS World!

Long story short, I was cut loose from my oncologist recently after 10 years and then got optic neuritis and was diagnosed with MS.

Glad to hear about your surviving cancer. But now the MS diagnosis - well, that sure stinks (doesn't seem fair at all).

I am actually feeling really well, just started on Avonex about 3 weeks ago, still titrating the doses, full dose this Saturday. It seems to be going well.

It's great to hear that you're feeling well, and that you're tolerating Avonex well too. Wishing you continued success with your treatment, and hoping that MS will be kind to you.

I look forward to learning lots from all of you.

Feel free to ask questions, and we'll be glad to help.

I'm sure after what you've been through, we can learn something from you, too. You seem to have a good attitude. Hope to see you around here.

Take care,
KoKo

[hunterd]

andi, WELCOME!!!!!! glad you found us, sorry there was reason to. looking forward to "seeing" more of you around.

dave

[andi b]

thanks for the welcome (fairly long)

Thanks very much for the welcome. I am 60 years old (yeah, old for a new diagnosis), live in a very small town on the north Olympic Peninsula of Washington and there is no MS support group here (at least no formal one that I know of) but lots of people with MS I think. I do better on line anyway.

After coming to terms with breast cancer over the past 10 years, it seems like this is just something else that I'll have to fit into my life. I think I've always been "waiting for this shoe to drop" as my husband said, because my sister and two cousins have MS (one cousin has progressive disease and my sister and other cousin RRMS).

I grew up in Denver, where the incidence is fairly high. I moved away to San Diego, where I lived for 32 years, then moved up north 7 years ago, which is when I became symptomatic. I have no idea if I have had it for awhile or if it came on recently.

I've worked in the medical field (administrative asst) for all my working life, so I feel fairly comfortable (and somewhat knowledgeable) with medical people and procedures. I immediately started looking stuff up (and scaring myself to death) when I thought it was MS. It was kinda funny, the ophthalmologist I saw for my vision loss said he doubted that it was MS, he had thought it would be a brain tumor from my breast cancer. But I think I already "knew" what it was.

So I am attempting to stay very positive and keep hoping that I have no symptoms (the ON is the only one so far, I think) or flares. I'm dreading the full dose of Avonex a bit this weekend after reading all the horror stories about how terrible it made people feel, but am hoping that if I hydrate and premedicate it will not affect me too badly.

Anyway, that's my story... and I'm sticking to it!

Andi