|
Ginny
Hi My name is Virginia,aka Ginny I am 52, married mother of 3 (boys 32 and 26,girl 31) grandmother of 3 (boys 10 and 6,girl 6) I live in Australia in a beautiful country area close to the mountains but grew up in Sydney. I was diagnosed with MS at 48 in 2004 on my son's birthday,so I always remember the date. I definately started getting symptoms back in the 90's but I may even be able to go back further with cognitive problems. My feet use to flap when I was walking for exercise and my friend use to say "your feet are bad today" of course I checked it out but because I have a back condition and long term Raynards Disease (from a teenager) the Dr put it down to that. When shopping I would feel off balance if I went up or down escalators,so tried to shop in flat centres( when told to the dr I was told I was suffering anxiety,I knew I wasn't) I worked in pharmacy for many years and was always having problems remembering orders etc.The last shop I was there for 7 years and we had a photo lab which I mangaged, as well as the everyday running of the shop front and helping in the despensary. I started feeling foggy in the head a lot of the time,knocking into things and tripping.I was seeing a new Dr for unrelated things and didn't tell her about the tripping etc,I just thought I was clumsy and the fogginess we put down to low blood sugar levels and I also thought the chemicals could be causing the fogginess as perfuime etc gave me headaches (I have many food and chemical intolerances) The staff were all much younger than I and thought I was just getting old.I never told the Dr how bad things were because I knew I would be told it was stress related as I had a lot of things going on in my life at the time.I have had a hearing problem for many years and once again was getting it checked as I was having trouble understanding customers and getting quite confused with instructions etc. As part of testing I had an MRI which was abnormal.I was sent for balance tests and told Dr about my memory problems and he ordered Neuropyschology testing and I was told I had a form of Dementia as I had a large area of damage in the thinking area of my brain. I asked this person if I had MS and she said NO,you do not have the symptoms.I was told to have an MRI every 2 years. Eventually I got diagnosed after having continuing symptoms,I asked to see a new Specialist and was armed with a list of all the symptoms dating back to the 90's( by now I had done a lot of my own investigating) and with the physical exam and by now 2 scans I got the DX. He couldn't beleive I had not been DX years earlier as he said my scans were not just abnormal but very abnormal.I found it strange as for many years when my daughter was young we thought she may have had MS as she was having problems and still does,back then it was only catscans,but nothing has shown up on an MRI a couple of years ago so it is just a wait and see with her.Thinking she may have it has made it easier for me to acept my DX.I am quite good compared to some but am slowly getting weaker and the heat and tiredness affects me greatly,but otherwise I can do most things in moderation.I never spent a lot of time outdoors as the sun would always make me tired . Thanks for listening,Virginia
|
