This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

I'm Rob, I like long walks-- Wait... Wrong introduction. I'm 22, and last year my legs went almost completely numb/tingly, so I went to check it out. The doc said it was 2 pinched nerves - 2 of them at the exact same time and in roughly the same spot on opposite sides... Long story short, he danced around it for a few months until a couple of weeks ago when my leg started going weak and burning. Then he referred me to a neurologist, and less than a week and one MRI later, I was diagnosed with MS.



Before all this last exacerbation, I was running everyday. It was the one thing that really made me feel alive again after all the brain-fog and the depression set in (Suppose this is my main source of hope nowadays. I know this exacerbation will pass, and I'll be back on the road). Before all this began, I was a top student in my classes; I would get grumpy if I dropped below a 4.0 GPA. Before all of this began, I had a girlfriend who I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with. Now? Well... I can't run at all; I failed last semester; and I'm now single as of September (Still good friends though! Lucky me!). At least now I know what's going on. I suppose I can consider myself 'lucky' in that regard. I suppose it'll all work out in the end though. I'm fortunately blessed with a great memory for the good times, and a bad memory for what ain't. This'll all be a bad dream in a few weeks. It also helps that I'm majoring in Computer Sciences, so I'm already all set for a desk job, heh.

I'm Rob, 22, and usually a very easy going guy. Just been a bad year. How about a toast to continuing good health though?

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I refuse to fail, to kneel or bow.
No power in the 'verse can stop me now!

Hi Rob, and welcome! It surprises me how many posters say they had MS incidents around age 22, but maybe I notice because that's when I was literally carried to the ER from an incident at work (all my co-workers diagnosed it as a pinched nerve as they watched me hauled out the door in pain unable to walk).

Fast forward 30 years, and I got a surprise MS dx at age 52, when I was feeling healthier than I had my entire life. It's great that you're an active person - I've never been able to run like that, although I found exercise and a healthy diet have made a tremendous improvement in my life. I've said many times that I'll be eternally grateful that I wasn't diagnosed early, so I found pathways to good health on my own, and they seemed to work!

Both the mainstream/neuro-recommended treatments (meaning drugs) and the alternative treatments (meaning interesting, hopeful, but experimental) show varying degrees of both improvement and/or impairment. We're all unique. So investigate them all, but you can't go wrong by optimizing your health with diet & exercise in the meantime.

Will toast with you to "continuing good health" and even improvement for all of us. And good riddance to bad years.

P.S. I'm still working full-time and taking college classes.

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Dx'd with MS & HNPP (hereditary peripheral neuropathy) 7/03 but must have had MS for 30 yrs before that. I've never taken meds for MS or MS symptoms except 1 yr experiment on LDN. (I found diet, exercise, sleep, humor, music help me the most.)

2011 has been a terrible year for me healthwise......MS has been pretty active with a multitude of new symptoms appearing.
I hope for all of us 2012 is better and MS goes back into its box!

Hi Rob! Welcome to the group. I was diagnosed in 2009 at 41. I had Optic Neuritis in 1999, was hospitalized for three days on Solu-Medrol, and given a plethora of tests including a lumbar puncture. All came back negative. When I was diagnosed, the right side of my face was paralyzed and I had double vision. My husband thought I had a stroke, but the rest of my body was unaffected. Looking back I've had symptoms for likely 10 years, but I thought they were medical anomalies. Thankfully I'm stable now, though I've got some cognitive and balance issues. I am, however, grateful I can still walk and talk.

Definitely do your research on treatments. This disease affects everyone differently and you have to find out what works for you. One recommendation I do have is to get cognitive/psychological testing done to have a baseline later on. Also, avoid stress when able. It can wreck havoc on your system.

I will gladly join you and everyone else here in a toast to a healthy & happy 2012. A friend of mine with MS called it a nuisance. I'd love to keep it that way!

Strangely enough, I woke up this morning, and I could run again... I guess I got a Christmas miracle or something, heh. Either way, I ran for quite awhile today. I guess after all my complaining, I really did turn out to be the lucky one, heh. It really does help to run when you can, in my experience. I had problems before with my eye as well: I couldn't focus them, a serious nystagmus, and when I could focus them, I couldn't really understand what I was seeing. Yeah, it was stressful. But I could run, so I was happy. I just hopped on my treadmill, and I felt like a million bucks after 20 minutes. I dunno... It really helped me to just get back into it. I know I probably shouldn't push myself that hard just coming out of it, but I'm given to understand that exercise won't cause/speed up exacerbations. In any case, it still feels a little weak, so I suppose I'm 'capped' either way. I thank you for your support and welcoming. Just reading over this forum last night gave me a new sense of hope after my last post.

I take it I'm gonna have to get used to being in agony one day and fine the next? Either way, it's back to merely being a nuisance, so I'm happy.

I'll definitely take your advice though; I'll look into getting cognitive/psychological testing in the near future.

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I refuse to fail, to kneel or bow.
No power in the 'verse can stop me now!

Hey Rob,

I'm a 33 yr old male who's been having MS like symptoms for around 3 months now. I have a 1 or 2 good (or decent) days then a couple bad ones. However, I have yet to be diagnosed due to my MRI and EMG being normal. I'm scheduled on January 5th for a cervical MRI so maybe that will show something...or maybe not. I'm a very active person as well, and I find that trying to exercise as much as possible definitely helps me.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself. Welcome to the forum and Happy New Year!

My good days generally last for about 2-3 months, and my bad ones generally lasted about as long. I'm on Vitamin D3 now, and it dropped the exacerbations to 4-6 weeks. Yeah. Exercise really does help as long as I don't push myself too far.

_________________
I refuse to fail, to kneel or bow.
No power in the 'verse can stop me now!