My name is Steven Jensen. I just registered today. I am a 32 year old medically retired Marine Corps Combat Veteran. I have been married to the most amazing women for 8 years. We have 2 beautiful little boys together. Throughout my life I would say that I have been a very motivated, caring, honest, loving, fun to be around type of guy. I served 5 years in the Marine Corps as a military police officer. My life was on track, I was motivated, and just loved every minute of everyday.
I was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 through 2010. Deployment was rough, alot of broken hearts, and broken homes from the lives that were lost in service to our country. I was fortunate to have returned home. I was involved in a roadside bomb that put me into a grand mal seizure. I had to be medically retired out of the Marine Corps because of it. I was devastated by that. From the day I was told I would no longer be an active duty marine, my life started to slowly fall apart.
Turned to alcohol to block everything. All my thoughts, worries, and feelings. I beat myself up even more because I told myself that my wife was not going to be able to look up to me as much as she did when I was in the Marines. I have been very grateful that she has continued to stand by my side no matter what, with her full heart. I wish I could turn back time and educated myself more on these issue before they took a hold of me.
Over the years things just kept getting worse and worse. My drinking became my mask, so I can hide from the world. I have been diagnosed with ptsd, TBI, and generalized seizure disorder. I did not know why I could not get myself together. Constantly trying to change my life for the better.
A few months ago I started having numbness and tingling in my chest, arms, hands, and feet. Along with vibrations from my neck to my feet when I point my head down. I did not think anything of it because those feelings have come and gone for years now, and then go away, but always come back. I thought it was just my herniated L4/L5. I was wrong. My wife insisted I go in to have it checked, so I did. My primary care refers me to a Nerologist. He has me get an MRI of my neck, and brain. Along with a lumbar puncture.
The results came back with 15 plus lesions on my brain and more throughout my spine. The lumbar puncture tested positive for MS. The Nerologist today have confirmed that I have chronic MS. He has ordered me to start taking copaxone injectable 3x per week for the next 8 months. After 8 months he wants to get another MRI to see if any more lesions have formed. Then I go from there with the same treatment if all is the same or different cancer based treatment if things have gotten any worse over the months.
Anyways I just wanted to share a little bit of my life with everyone. I have just been really struggling and I was told that the MS is most likely caused by environmental exposure to the middle East when I deployed to Afghanistan. I was also told that MS is a major cause of depression, anxiety, and poor judgment/choices. Which have made alot of poor choices. All of these poor choices have started post deployment, and never before that. I'm writing this in hopes of support and feedback for my current situation.
I absolutely am desperate to find ways to better cope with these symptoms, so I can ultimately prevent more emotional hurt towards my family, and myself. I want my family and I to enjoy the rest of our lives together even with a diagnosis of ms that i will have ro live with forever. Thank you.
P.S. I would really like to hear feedback from anyone that can relate or thinks/feels that the MS and all these brain lesions in my frontal lobe and else where on the brain is directly responsible for my change and depression to hide, drink, anger, anxiety, medication, and so on?
I was never like this before Afghanistan. I do have ptsd but this is not ptsd. I got past all that happened years ago. I'm just trying to find out if the brain damage is a major reason of my actions since deployment. Considering my Nerologist/MS doctor is saying that I got MS from environmental exposure to the middle East when I deployed to Afghanistan from 2009-2010.
** 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. **
I was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 through 2010. Deployment was rough, alot of broken hearts, and broken homes from the lives that were lost in service to our country. I was fortunate to have returned home. I was involved in a roadside bomb that put me into a grand mal seizure. I had to be medically retired out of the Marine Corps because of it. I was devastated by that. From the day I was told I would no longer be an active duty marine, my life started to slowly fall apart.
Turned to alcohol to block everything. All my thoughts, worries, and feelings. I beat myself up even more because I told myself that my wife was not going to be able to look up to me as much as she did when I was in the Marines. I have been very grateful that she has continued to stand by my side no matter what, with her full heart. I wish I could turn back time and educated myself more on these issue before they took a hold of me.
Over the years things just kept getting worse and worse. My drinking became my mask, so I can hide from the world. I have been diagnosed with ptsd, TBI, and generalized seizure disorder. I did not know why I could not get myself together. Constantly trying to change my life for the better.
A few months ago I started having numbness and tingling in my chest, arms, hands, and feet. Along with vibrations from my neck to my feet when I point my head down. I did not think anything of it because those feelings have come and gone for years now, and then go away, but always come back. I thought it was just my herniated L4/L5. I was wrong. My wife insisted I go in to have it checked, so I did. My primary care refers me to a Nerologist. He has me get an MRI of my neck, and brain. Along with a lumbar puncture.
The results came back with 15 plus lesions on my brain and more throughout my spine. The lumbar puncture tested positive for MS. The Nerologist today have confirmed that I have chronic MS. He has ordered me to start taking copaxone injectable 3x per week for the next 8 months. After 8 months he wants to get another MRI to see if any more lesions have formed. Then I go from there with the same treatment if all is the same or different cancer based treatment if things have gotten any worse over the months.
Anyways I just wanted to share a little bit of my life with everyone. I have just been really struggling and I was told that the MS is most likely caused by environmental exposure to the middle East when I deployed to Afghanistan. I was also told that MS is a major cause of depression, anxiety, and poor judgment/choices. Which have made alot of poor choices. All of these poor choices have started post deployment, and never before that. I'm writing this in hopes of support and feedback for my current situation.
I absolutely am desperate to find ways to better cope with these symptoms, so I can ultimately prevent more emotional hurt towards my family, and myself. I want my family and I to enjoy the rest of our lives together even with a diagnosis of ms that i will have ro live with forever. Thank you.
P.S. I would really like to hear feedback from anyone that can relate or thinks/feels that the MS and all these brain lesions in my frontal lobe and else where on the brain is directly responsible for my change and depression to hide, drink, anger, anxiety, medication, and so on?
I was never like this before Afghanistan. I do have ptsd but this is not ptsd. I got past all that happened years ago. I'm just trying to find out if the brain damage is a major reason of my actions since deployment. Considering my Nerologist/MS doctor is saying that I got MS from environmental exposure to the middle East when I deployed to Afghanistan from 2009-2010.
** 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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