Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

New to everything

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    New to everything

    Hello everyone. I’m new here to MSWorld and I’m new to the M.S. World overall. Last fall I had numbness that started in my left leg and worked its way up my left side to my face. The numbness turned into pressure and slowly abated. I thought it was a recurrence of Lyme Disease that I was treated for the year before. I went through three months of antibiotics (and some other oddities the Lyme Doc put me on) and thought I was all better. Some of the residual symptoms were two numb toes, occasional tingling hands and feet and the left side of my face is still occasionally numb.

    My GP referred me to a neurologist, the neurologist ordered an MRI of my brain and he found two active lesions. He then ordered a spinal tap which showed more than 5 Obands. He declared me to have MS July 1st. A follow-on MRI of my spine has shown no more lesions… so, this is fairly early, you think? The funny thing is, even though the event last fall was obviously an MS exacerbation (felt like hitting a brick wall) I tested positive for Lyme disease at the time… so I was steadily fooling myself.

    I’m a mother of 8 year old twins. I work full time as an engineer… this is how I define myself. Now I suppose I need to add MS patient to the list.. it’s hard to wrap my brain around that. I’m the type of person that will read the last chapter of a book so I know how it ends. That way I can enjoy the journey better. I can’t do that here.

    Oh. I want to ask a question. Sometimes I get a charlie horse time freezing of my muscles in my left hand or in my toes…. Is that MS?

    Thanks for reading my book everyone.

    #2
    Hello Today's Child

    Welcome to MS World - nice to meet you!

    Gosh, that was a coincidence to have Lymes at the same time as MS (since some of the symptoms are so similar).

    There's no need in calling yourself an MS patient (unless you want to). You are first a person - with MS.

    As for your reading the end of a book first in order to enjoy the journey better - that's interesting I wonder how many people could do that? In any case, we weren't able to predict the future when we didn't have MS, and we still can't predict the future now that we have MS. No one has a crystal ball

    The charlie horse type feelings that you get could be what's called muscle spasticity. Spasticity is often one of the symptoms of MS, but this tightening of muscles can occur in various other disorders too.

    Feel free to browse the various forums. I'm sure you'll benefit from the information, support, and the shared experiences of our members. Looking forward to seeing you around

    Take care,
    KoKo
    PPMS for 26 years (dx 1998)
    ~ Worrying will not take away tomorrow's troubles ~ But it will take away today's peace. ~

    Comment


      #3
      Hello Todays Child

      Welcome to the MS forums. You will find a great group of members here that are always willing to listen, share and offer support

      Good luck to you. Hope to see you on the boards often.

      Comment


        #4
        Thank you for the welcome. Yes, it is odd that I had a recurrence of Lyme at the same time as MS, but I had had Lyme the summer before. My brother in law is a family doctor in a different state and he diagnosed my problem over the phone at the time. He told me the freaky neurological symptoms are either Lyme or MS.... little did he know it was both. I just assumed a few months of antibiotics and I would be right as rain. Hee hee hee ...

        I'm trying not to let the fear overtake me. I think the fear of the unknown is something I need to come to terms with. I understand that in a typical scenario you aren't guaranteed status quo... but the odds are in your favor. Now... I woke up yesterday (after a Betaseron shot the night before) with a pain in my back where my right kidney is and I couldn't tell if I should worry about my kidney or blow it off that I had pulled a muscle. I'm not one to worry about my body much but now I'm overly paranoid. (BTW, muscle won out).

        Thanks for providing a place to post.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by todays child View Post
          I’m a mother of 8 year old twins. I work full time as an engineer… this is how I define myself.
          What type of engineer are you; EE, ME, ???

          I am not an engineer but I am a technical writer so for half of my professional career I have worked very closely with a number of EEs and the MEs and their drafters who provided the AutoCAD drawings I inserted into my technical manuals.

          But I am naturally curious to see what kind of cognitive impact that this awful disease has had on engineers. The first half of my professional career was documenting software and then in the middle I took the leap into documenting integrated systems where the software controls the hardware.

          Now I just find that my mind has become quite scrambled as I delve into the hardware side. I am also the father of a boy who just turned six, I have another boy who is younger and my youngest is a girl going through the terrible twos.

          I in no way to want to pin everything on MS because life as it already is can be a handful outside of having a chronic incurable disease (I am also the only breadwinner in the household who just got fired from his job).

          But is there really any need to "re-define" yourself just because you now have MS?

          I don't want to sound naive but my rationale for not taking this disease so seriously is probably out of ignorance. I am a Hispanic male who has lived in the wretched heat and humidity of south Texas all of his life. Because of the demographic I am in, I probably stand a better chance of winning the Texas Lottery than having this disease; hence I just don't know much about it.

          Perhaps ignorance is bliss but I am not all that prepared to "re-define" myself as long as I have the ability to control a large degree of my destiny. I agree that I am ceding part of that control but as long as I am still the running the show then I plan on being as capable as I can.

          Comment


            #6
            Today's child add MS fighter and survivor to your resume. MS will not define me nor should it you. (((Hugs))) for your fight today.
            "...the joy of the Lord is your (my) strength." Nehemiah 8:10

            Comment


              #7
              Thank you very much for the responses. It's funny to read reactions to the things I post... but, when I re-read what prompted that reaction I understand why. Yes, to some degree I do feel a need to bin myself. Everything needs to be classified or defined in some why (in my mind). I was in a giant all-hands meeting at work this morning and, captivating as it was, I looked around the room and wondered statistically how many people in the room must also be dealing with MS. How many people, I wondered, are dealing with cancer or something else and are just putting on a good "work" face.

              I'm a very easy going person. I love life and I love most of all my husband and two very glorious children. However, I have a problem giving over control. I generally make a plan and aim for it - I read the end of the book and I know where I'm going. ... this aint workin for me any more.

              Wolf, I'm sorry about the loss of your job. Oh I can't imagine the pressure. I'm a system's engineer now with more of a bent toward optical engineering. I prefer optical engineering - design and analysis - but one must do what's available. I hope the cog fog stays far far away for a very long time. I need my wits about me (or at least the impression of such) until the kids are thru college.

              cocogirl - so far I'm fighting!!!!! .

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by todays child View Post
                I was in a giant all-hands meeting at work this morning and, captivating as it was, I looked around the room and wondered statistically how many people in the room must also be dealing with MS. How many people, I wondered, are dealing with cancer or something else and are just putting on a good "work" face.
                What you failed to include in your list are the people who are generally happy because they are happy people (they don't have to a "work" face on).

                The reason I say that is because at a previous job I had a co-worker who used to say that our boss had to be taking "happy" pills because he was always in a good mood. Then one day I saw that he had a print out of the "Optimist Creed" in his work area. I asked him about it and I got quite a story out of it.

                He said that when he was in our corporate office on a out-of-state business trip, he had dropped by our bosses office where he saw the Optimist Creed there. By a simple Google search, my co-worker found it and thought it would be a good exercise for his daughters to memorize. But his girls wanted him to memorize it too. And as he was trying to memorize it, he realized that he had way too much negativity in his own life.

                So in other words, how could he expect his offspring to live by such standards when he couldn't do it as well. Then he tried to apply what was in the Optimist Creed in his own life.

                After I got that explanation from him, he found a copy of it on the web and printed it out for me. And I then discovered how negative I really was when I tried to apply its principles to my day-to-day life.

                Interestingly, my last week at work before I started my new job, my boss flew in to our remote site (he still has family here) and I got to explain to him that the biggest impact he had on my life was something that he was never even aware of; the Optimist Creed. He explained how he had joined the Optimist club years ago and tried to apply it to his life; it also vividly showed me that he didn't need to take any happy pills.

                I still have a lot of negativity in my life but the Optimist Creed has given me a totally different outlook. I don't want to have so much misery in my life so the Optimist Creed has given me such a different perspective of the world.

                So there may be some people who "don't" have a work face on because they are truly happy people. Perhaps one day I can become one of those individuals.

                Comment

                Working...
                X