Hi, my name is Jen. I am 26 years old and I was just diagnosed with MS about a week and a half ago.. and I'm pretty sure I'm still in a state of shock..
The last year has been the most stressful of my life, so I guess if I were to begin showing symptoms of MS, now was going to be the time. I am getting married this September, and that's really enough to make this an incredibly stressful time.. I do not like planning things, but when it came down to it, I really did want to have a wedding. It would have been nice it some would have planned the whole thing for me, but lord knows I wouldn't have been able to let that happen. In any case, making decisions has always been really hard for me, so most of the time I've just been trying to tread water. And now this..
So, my MS ordeal began in early June. I noticed something was wrong with the vision in my right eye. At first my eye hurt and I was getting a lot of head aches, but the soon the pain went away. Yes, I have optic neuritis.. I went to my doctor..who sent me to the eye doctor..who give me a visual field test (which my right eye didn't do so well on). Then they sent me off for an MRI. A few days later my doctor gave me a call telling me, worst case scenario, it's MS. They found lesions on my MRI. But she didn't seem super convinced that it was MS.. She sent me to a neurologist. I wasn't expecting much.. I thought maybe he'd order more tests.. but they did a general exam and he reviewed my MRI, and soon enough he was telling me I have MS...
They had me go in early this week for steroid infusions. However, after the first session, I got ridiculously ill. I was so nauseous that I went in the next day for IV fluid and anti-nausea meds instead. Apparently this is not a typical reaction.. That's when I found out my vision loss is probably permanent anyways.. Kinda wish they'd mention these things more upfront. Or maybe I didn't ask the right questions.. Anyways I'm starting on Copaxone soon. I just received the injecting device in the mail today. This has all happened so fast, that I'm not entirely sure I've fully processed all of this. I mostly feel fine, so it's kinda hard to accept I have this incurable disease. I'm a bit terrified, but I'm ok. How is someone supposed to handle all of this? I thought I was supposed to be in my prime.