The initial doctors examinations were interesting especially when the doctor took out a large safety pin, opened it up and started poking my face which made me not just nervous but concerned. Was I in the clutches of some modern day witch doctor? She must have known what she was doing because right away she suspected MS and referred me to a neurologist for evaluation.

At the time of my initial evaluation there weren’t very many tools for diagnosing MS available. MRI was a relatively new technology and very expensive. While I eventually got a referral to the only MRI system available in our area my initial evaluation consisted of the traditional tests including a spinal tap (never again without a darn good reason! The tap itself wasn’t too bad but the aftermath; never have I had such terrible and prolonged head pain as occurred during the subsequent week).

The diagnoses of MS was confirmed and I was actually relieved that I didn’t have heart problems. In my arrogance I just assumed I could overcome MS with persistence and time. That’s how little I knew about MS. At the time I had a “use it or lose it” attitude and had no sympathy for “lazy bums” that wouldn’t get up and even try. I was a former smoker who took up running in order to quit and honestly didn’t understand those without the mental discipline needed to accomplish a goal (like getting well). I well remember a newspaper article prior to my diagnoses about an MS suffer who was fighting to get a disabled parking permit because his fatigue made it almost impossible to do grocery shopping without parking close to the store. He kept getting parking tickets which induced even more stress causing more MS attacks. I’m now ashamed to say that at the time I had no sympathy for someone who wouldn’t exercise and get their endurance up. It was my feeling that he was just lazy.

Well, we all learn, some better than others. If this blog educates people about MS then maybe others won’t repeat my mistake. MS is a physical disease just like a broken arm or a severed spinal cord and no amount of “will power” can fix your body. You just have to accept that fact and muddle on the best you can. Hopefully others can accept that fact as well.

As is typical of Relapsing/Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) I slowly started to recover helped by a steroid treatment (prednisone). After about six weeks I’d more or less recovered. For the next several years this was the norm for me. I’d get three or four attacks a year followed by a partial recovery. After each attack my recovery wasn’t total but was sufficient for me to continue working. After that first attack, subsequent attacks seemed to concentrate on my left side. I’ve even gone temporarily blind in my left eye during attacks. Eventually I learned to recognize the onset of an MS attack that affected my eye. The eye would start out getting sore then painful (it feels like a red hot needle being thrust into the back of the eyeball) before going blind. The only thing I can do at times like this is lay down, close my eyes and try to relax.

In hindsight I can now recognize several probable MS episodes that I had prior to being diagnosed. One in particular stands out to me. Our son and I were hiking around Mt. Rainier when my knees became painful with each step (just like the initial symptoms of my first recognized attack). Strangely I experienced no pain while going uphill or climbing but going downhill was excruciatingly painful. As a result I hiked the last few miles downhill backward where grandma Oddball was waiting for us and drove us home (we weren’t grandparents then).

As you can see I was diagnosed relatively quickly and had the full support of my family and my employer. As a result I never experienced the stress that actually exacerbates MS while learning to live with my new circumstances. In short, I was one of the lucky few.

If this doesn’t answer the question leave a comment and I’ll clarify or expand on anything. Just remember you can ask anything. Nothing is too dumb or trivial for me to try and answer. There was lots of seemingly dumb things I didn’t know about MS when I started this journey and I encountered many patient people at support groups that helped me along the way.

Pages:
«« previous page 1 2 3

Tags: Multiple Sclerosis

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Multiple Sclerosis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

this article with others.