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Cookie
 Well,
here is my story. I am 41
right now, was DX at age 25. I have been on a rollercoaster ride since
DX, but
who isn’t.
Ok, let’s get to the DX. I
really never had any symptoms at any time in my life. I was not an
athlete or
any thing like that but I was pretty active. My father was in the
Military, we
moved around a lot as I was growing up. I think that the only corner of
the US
that I didn’t live in was north east. Of all the places I lived, Alaska
was
the most memorable. Cold there? Um, yaw. I remember it getting to 82
deg below
zero once, we almost froze to death. I really never put any thought
into it at
the time, that some day down the road that this incident could have an
impact on
my life. I am not sure that it ever did for that matter. But I do feel
it still
today. The cold really bothers me. It wasn’t until I had a child that
the
symptoms started, my newborn son was just 3 weeks old, I was numb and
tingly all
over, it was really hard to hold my new baby. I even fell once while
holding
him, he wasn’t hurt, and neither was I, just my ego maybe. And no one
saw it,
as I was at home, and it was private. I went to the Dr, they ran just
about
every test they could, that were not MS related, at least I don’t think
so,
and they didn’t even mention MS. The only thing the Dr could say was, I
see a
problem, but I just can’t quite pinpoint it. I am sure that this saying
is in
the Dr Dictionary, I decided that I needed a second opinion, so I went
to
another Dr, this Dr wasn’t much better. But he says Multiple Sclerosis,
and a
couple of other things, but I only heard the Multiple Sclerosis. They
did a
battery of blood tests and hooked me up with wires on machines me among
other
testss, They did MRI’s of my back, brain and neck, they came up with
their DX.
I had Multiple Sclerosis. Wow. That was just about the worst news I
had, my son
was now 10 months old, and it was 2 weeks before Christmas. It was a
shock. I
still didn’t really need any medicine as of yet, but I did have my DX.
They
gave me some meds to take as I was dealing with depression, and hadn’t
really
gotten over the postpartum depression due to the struggle of what my
life was
dealing me.
Over the years, my body has
changed; The Dr’s have tried Avonex, Copaxone, Betaseron. And they went
back
to Avonex because my body would not process the others. I am now
suffering with
optic neuritis in my left eye. I am not able to do the things I once
used to as
well as I would like, and some things I just cant do any more. I do
work, but
part time now. I love to bowl, and yes, I still do that. I don’t do it
as well
as I would like to, but I still enjoy it as much as possible. My son is
now
almost 17 years old. And is almost done with school, he will be moving
on soon,
so that is really getting to me. I wanted to have another child, but
back when I
was DX, they told me that it would be like playing Russian roulette
with my
life, so I opted out on having any more children. Now they say that its
not bad
for you to have children, but I am not going to have a child at age 42.
To many
risks for the child and me at this age. So I have chosen to have pets,
I have 3
Miniature Dachshund’s. They are my babies, and I love them.
I
am married, just had my 7th
anniversary on September 22nd. I have been
married twice, my first
husband didn’t know what to do with me and the MS DX, my husband now,
when we
first met, I told him that I have MS, he said “so” and we have been
together
ever since. I love him very much, he is very supportive, and even does
research
on MS at times, lets me know when he hears of new medicine is out
there. It is
great to have him in my life.
So,
in closing, I really love
the people I have met on line in all of the MS chat rooms that I have
been to.
The knowledge that every one has and shares is awesome and a great
lesson each
day……………. I hope to meet many many more MS’ers out there in the
days, weeks, months and years to come.
So this is my story, I hope to
meet you some day if you are reading this, see you in the chat room.
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