II HAVE NEVER WRITTEN MY STORY OF MS AND HOW IT CHANGED MY LIFE, BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT TIME. I AM NOT SURE WHERE TO BEGIN BUT AT THE BEGINNING.Re: UPDATERe: please, aid me in my present condition

[Guest guest]

II HAVE NEVER WRITTEN MY STORY OF MS AND HOW IT CHANGED MY LIFE, BUT I THOUGHT

IT WAS ABOUT TIME. I AM NOT SURE WHERE TO BEGIN BUT AT THE BEGINNING.

My husband had just retired after twenty years in the navy.We were in

california, my children and I had been born there, but we were moving to Kansas

and it was a stressful time. I only add this as I know stress has a lot to do

with this. It was a long trip, and I did not want to go

but I was determined to try, and kept up a good front. My husband had been

overseas in Vietnam and had come home a different man that I had married.

After we arrived, I managed to get a god job working for the State of Kansas, I

had put the children in school, we had bought land and a home and started life

over. My husband, Chuck, and his brother started a business. For awhile it

seemed all would go well. Until the symptons began.

I awoke one morning, totally numb on ones ide of my body. I almost fell when I

got up, and so I called my Dr.' You are too young for a stroke' he said'I think

it is nerves and depression', and he wrote a prescription for valium and an

antideppresant and I just looked at hime and did't know what to think. I began

to take the pills, and years later regretted it. But after a few days rest the

numbness went away and I returned to work, just thinking it was nerves. Shortly

later my feet would begin to b urn, my legs would go heavy, and i would have

tingling in my hands. I ignored it and kept working.

Things at home were not good, and just to save time I will say, I took my

children back to California and sought a divorce. Ignoring the symptoms. I found

a job at a communication company and began to work on a switchboard.

My right hand had become numb, and it was hard to operate a switchboard. I had a

job as a switchboard operator and had worked my way up to supervisor. And so I

went to a neurologist who diagnosed it as carpul tunnel syndrome, and did

surgerey. It was painful, and I lost the use of my hand. Looking back now, I

realize it was not necessary. While I was in the hospital another Dr. saw me,

and did a spinal tap. MRI " S were not available then. The results were abnormal.

I kept working, until one day I had a sharp pain in my eye, and lost some

vision. I could no longer ignore this, and I knew it. I had to be driven home

that day as I could not see to drive.

By that time, I had relocated to San Diego, calif. and had remarried and until

that day did the best I could to live a normal life. My new husband, Norman,

took me the best neuoroligist in the city. He did a lot of painful tests, and

one day called me into his office, and I will never forget the words he used at

the diagnosis that would change my life. Dr Raffer said to me, 'I have good news

and I have bad news, the good news is that you do not need any more tests, he

looked directly at me and said you have multiple sclerosis.''

He gave me a book to read, and when I did I knew, It had taken ten years to

diagnose this, the MRIS were available and there was no doubt.

As the years went on I had paralysis as well. But then went oon to voc rehab and

went on to college determined to go one. Ms would go completly away and I would

go into remissiion after the use of IV steriods. It kept me going, until due to

bone loss and fractured they could no longer use them.

And TIME HAS GONE, AND I DO WELL at 61 I walk with a walker, no longer in a

wheel chair. I am a free lance writer and i live in Iowa.

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