My first symptom was numbness in my left fingertips. I was 28 years old. I thought it was because my hand was caught in my dog’s collar and when my dog got so excited; my fingers were pinched in the choker collar. The tingling never went away. After a week of numbness, the symptom of tingling and numbness spread to my left hand then up my arm. I started feeling dizzy all the time. I thought it was because the weather was so hot, I felt overheated. The dizziness never went away. I started to get scared. The numbness spread to the left side of my face and it felt like I had gotten shots from the dentist causing my face to be numb. I lost my taste buds one week later. I started to get even more scared so I decided to see my doctor.

My doctor could not figure out what was wrong with me and said I needed to see a specialist called a neurologist. My doctor made an appointment for me to see the neurologist the next day. When I went to see him, he felt that before he could figure out what was wrong with me, he wanted me to have a magnetic reasoning image (MRI). I have never heard of this type of procedure. This was so new to me. I was scared and thought I had a brain tumor because of all the things that were happening to my body.  My symptoms got worse over the next few days. I started to see double vision and it became very difficult to drive and work. I decided to stay home until the neurologist figured out what was wrong with me.

The MRI was painless, thank God. I was so sick I fell asleep in the machine for over one hour. The technician woke me up and helped me to the dressing room and I changed my clothes. My sister took me home and I slept all day. My world was so out of whack, I could not really do anything. A few days later, the neurologist told me to come in because he found out what was wrong. I came into the neurologist’s office with a friend from work. I remember this day as if it was yesterday.

The day was so hot almost 95 degrees outside and I had the worst migraine headache. I felt so sick and nauseated I wanted to throw up. When I went into the office, the neurologist told me I have a disease called Multiple Sclerosis. Here is some literature for you to read, get these medications filled, start taking the medicine, come back, and see me in two weeks. I was stunned; I had no idea what MS was. He said just read the brochures you will get an idea and if you have any questions, ask me in two weeks. My friend and I went outside, she took one look at my face and came around the car and gave me a huge hug. She took me home after a few stops. I thought that it was the longest ride home. It felt like we had driven for almost 3 hours. My head was pounding something fierce and I was so sick to my stomach. I took some aspirin and tried to lie down.  The room was spinning so badly, I got up and threw up several times. My sister came home from work, she woke me up and I tried to explain to her what the doctor said. We got into a small fight because we did not know what MS was.

This was the start of my confusing year of having this disease.