Desperately need some input. Never knew was MS was... (long)
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:33 am
I am a 25 year old female, and here is a comprehensive history of my symptoms.
The earliest instance of what may be a relevant symptom, due to its idiopathic and unexplained nature, occurred in latter part of 2008 when I was 18. I remember gradually over the course of a few weeks, I lost my ability to take a full breath or yawn. It felt as though my lungs were simply not strong enough to expand to the air I was attempting to inhale. In conversation I would have to take frequent gasps to avoid becoming too short of breath—with no other reasonable explanation, I assumed it was some sort of anxiety. The breathing issue was couple with temporary bouts of extreme fatigue and depression. The problem resolved itself spontaneously after a couple months.
The first significant occurrence of multiple unexplained symptoms presented in the fall of 2010. I noticed that my hands began tingle at the fingertips, and then a burning/tingling sensation would mask my palm. Similarly sensations of swelling also arose in my feet, calves, forearms, and the top and right sides of my face. Accompanied with these symptoms was intense fatigue and debilitating weakness, to the point that I was hardly able to perform even basic job duties without nearly collapsing (I specifically remember mopping or just picking up a broom to be almost impossible).
My arms were rendered basically useless, despite having been an athlete with extremely well-developed strength, and trying to brush my hair was overwhelming. I simply could not lift my arms for more than a few seconds before they would need to collapse back down to my sides. In one instance, my limbs were so weak I had to physically crawl and drag myself up the stairs to my room, where I lay in bedroom doorway for about half an hour.
Throughout the entire duration of this “episode,” I also developed an intense and unbearable sensitivity to sound. I could no longer type on my computer because the keys were like shattering glass. Music turned to the lowest volume possible before mute was somehow too loud for me to handle. I couldn’t so much as stay in a room with a ticking clock. I recall feeling hopelessly depressed, incapacitated, and almost entirely broken. Eventually, for no conceivable reason whatsoever, all symptoms stopped.
It was not until the summer of 2012 that something similar occurred. The weakness in my limbs returned, as well as crippling fatigue and depression. I remember taking a shower and becoming overwhelmed and exhausted by simply trying to wash my hair.
In addition, I recall having sat down at my computer to look something up, and suddenly realizing that I could no longer read the words. My eyes abruptly lost their ability to focus no matter how hard I tried, and I as continued to type (trying to ignore my eyesight deficiency), several of my fingers on my right hand (pinky and ring) involuntary became stuck, or locked somehow. The ring finger positioned itself over the pinky finger, and I was unable to use them. I not recall for certain how long they remained in that position, but I know it was at least several hours. Additionally, I remember a great deal of tingling in both my hands and arms, as well as pain in my fingertips. I went to the emergency room for the blurred vision, but they said it was just anxiety (which I denied).
Over the next year, there would be several sporadic instances (every 3 or 4 months or so) where the burning sensations would return… at one point, I felt such an intense heat from the inside of my chest that I became too dizzy to stand. Throughout this episode and the others around this time, I found myself losing the ability to think properly, or perform even basic routine tasks. I would forget what I was saying halfway through a sentence, and be unable to comprehend or recall what was being said to me by others.
The tension in my upper back and neck (that has been omnipresent since 2011) becomes immeasurably worse and almost completely incapacitating when these other symptoms are there. I would occasionally tilt my head to the left or right to try and relieve the intense feeling of pressure, and I would experience sharp electrical shock type feelings shoot down my legs and/or arms.
In February of this year, along with the stiffened fingers, burning sensations in my arms, legs, and face, freezing cold hands and feet, and blurred vision, I had a muscle spasm in my neck that was so intense it made my left eye bleed for two days. Additionally, I was no longer able to breathe properly. Symptoms subsided completely after about a week.
Over the past 6 months I have begun to notice significant developments in the presentation of what I thought was just bizarre random phenomena. Most notably is my cognitive function… it has declined rapidly and profoundly, to the point that my professional life is beginning to become a concern. I find some of my thinking abilities have been gradually impaired since 2011 specifically, however now I am experience extreme difficulties with my memory in particular, as well as my ability to complete (or sometimes even begin) a simple routine task that I’ve done dozens if not hundreds of times in the past year.
I find that I am almost completely unable to recall anything anyone says to me throughout the day, and any verbal instruction I am given just simply does not make sense. As if I can’t put the words together… at all. I am finding myself less and less able to perform at my job, mostly due to my cognitive issues, but also due to some physical complaints as well. Most days I am so tired I can hardly function. My fingers tire from typing even a few sentences, and some days I am unable to rise from a sitting or especially crouched position without significant effort and energy.
This past week has been perhaps the worst since 2010. I am unable to form thoughts or sentences, my speech sounds unarticulated, certain words blend together and I can’t seem to separate them. Over the past several years my handwriting has become almost indecipherable… I have a great deal of difficulty directing my hand to form certain letters. I’ll forget how to spell words as I’m in the middle of writing them (which is unheard of, I have a vocabulary of over 50,000 words and I can spell them all). With that being said, I’ve never NOT been able to think of a word. Now I get so flustered that I give up.
It’s a huge problem that I’m not able to perform well at my job—I am the assistant general manager, and I have a great deal of responsibility. My boss has noticed extreme changes and decline in my job performance, and she said she’s noticed it becoming worse over the summer.
I’m constantly uncomfortable, stiff, and while in the past it was only a mild inconvenience, now I am completely unable to tolerate even minimal warmth. In my suit at work the other day, I was flushed and my face felt as though it was burning. I felt suffocated in my jacket. My hands, arms, legs and feet had all gotten the burning sensation as well. I took a shower at home and nearly fainted.
I do not know much about Multiple Sclerosis, but I know that I have just ignored these random episodes for several years now… however, now that my boss is noticing and has become extremely concerned, I felt compelled to act. I went to the ER the other night and they found nothing, again. Later that night I was doing genealogy research (as I always do), and I saw that I could download my raw DNA… naturally curious, I did. Then I stumbled across Promethease and got even more curious. The first things that showed up were all of the indicators making me 6x more likely to develop Multiple Sclerosis. I had 89 markers. Is that was this could be?
The earliest instance of what may be a relevant symptom, due to its idiopathic and unexplained nature, occurred in latter part of 2008 when I was 18. I remember gradually over the course of a few weeks, I lost my ability to take a full breath or yawn. It felt as though my lungs were simply not strong enough to expand to the air I was attempting to inhale. In conversation I would have to take frequent gasps to avoid becoming too short of breath—with no other reasonable explanation, I assumed it was some sort of anxiety. The breathing issue was couple with temporary bouts of extreme fatigue and depression. The problem resolved itself spontaneously after a couple months.
The first significant occurrence of multiple unexplained symptoms presented in the fall of 2010. I noticed that my hands began tingle at the fingertips, and then a burning/tingling sensation would mask my palm. Similarly sensations of swelling also arose in my feet, calves, forearms, and the top and right sides of my face. Accompanied with these symptoms was intense fatigue and debilitating weakness, to the point that I was hardly able to perform even basic job duties without nearly collapsing (I specifically remember mopping or just picking up a broom to be almost impossible).
My arms were rendered basically useless, despite having been an athlete with extremely well-developed strength, and trying to brush my hair was overwhelming. I simply could not lift my arms for more than a few seconds before they would need to collapse back down to my sides. In one instance, my limbs were so weak I had to physically crawl and drag myself up the stairs to my room, where I lay in bedroom doorway for about half an hour.
Throughout the entire duration of this “episode,” I also developed an intense and unbearable sensitivity to sound. I could no longer type on my computer because the keys were like shattering glass. Music turned to the lowest volume possible before mute was somehow too loud for me to handle. I couldn’t so much as stay in a room with a ticking clock. I recall feeling hopelessly depressed, incapacitated, and almost entirely broken. Eventually, for no conceivable reason whatsoever, all symptoms stopped.
It was not until the summer of 2012 that something similar occurred. The weakness in my limbs returned, as well as crippling fatigue and depression. I remember taking a shower and becoming overwhelmed and exhausted by simply trying to wash my hair.
In addition, I recall having sat down at my computer to look something up, and suddenly realizing that I could no longer read the words. My eyes abruptly lost their ability to focus no matter how hard I tried, and I as continued to type (trying to ignore my eyesight deficiency), several of my fingers on my right hand (pinky and ring) involuntary became stuck, or locked somehow. The ring finger positioned itself over the pinky finger, and I was unable to use them. I not recall for certain how long they remained in that position, but I know it was at least several hours. Additionally, I remember a great deal of tingling in both my hands and arms, as well as pain in my fingertips. I went to the emergency room for the blurred vision, but they said it was just anxiety (which I denied).
Over the next year, there would be several sporadic instances (every 3 or 4 months or so) where the burning sensations would return… at one point, I felt such an intense heat from the inside of my chest that I became too dizzy to stand. Throughout this episode and the others around this time, I found myself losing the ability to think properly, or perform even basic routine tasks. I would forget what I was saying halfway through a sentence, and be unable to comprehend or recall what was being said to me by others.
The tension in my upper back and neck (that has been omnipresent since 2011) becomes immeasurably worse and almost completely incapacitating when these other symptoms are there. I would occasionally tilt my head to the left or right to try and relieve the intense feeling of pressure, and I would experience sharp electrical shock type feelings shoot down my legs and/or arms.
In February of this year, along with the stiffened fingers, burning sensations in my arms, legs, and face, freezing cold hands and feet, and blurred vision, I had a muscle spasm in my neck that was so intense it made my left eye bleed for two days. Additionally, I was no longer able to breathe properly. Symptoms subsided completely after about a week.
Over the past 6 months I have begun to notice significant developments in the presentation of what I thought was just bizarre random phenomena. Most notably is my cognitive function… it has declined rapidly and profoundly, to the point that my professional life is beginning to become a concern. I find some of my thinking abilities have been gradually impaired since 2011 specifically, however now I am experience extreme difficulties with my memory in particular, as well as my ability to complete (or sometimes even begin) a simple routine task that I’ve done dozens if not hundreds of times in the past year.
I find that I am almost completely unable to recall anything anyone says to me throughout the day, and any verbal instruction I am given just simply does not make sense. As if I can’t put the words together… at all. I am finding myself less and less able to perform at my job, mostly due to my cognitive issues, but also due to some physical complaints as well. Most days I am so tired I can hardly function. My fingers tire from typing even a few sentences, and some days I am unable to rise from a sitting or especially crouched position without significant effort and energy.
This past week has been perhaps the worst since 2010. I am unable to form thoughts or sentences, my speech sounds unarticulated, certain words blend together and I can’t seem to separate them. Over the past several years my handwriting has become almost indecipherable… I have a great deal of difficulty directing my hand to form certain letters. I’ll forget how to spell words as I’m in the middle of writing them (which is unheard of, I have a vocabulary of over 50,000 words and I can spell them all). With that being said, I’ve never NOT been able to think of a word. Now I get so flustered that I give up.
It’s a huge problem that I’m not able to perform well at my job—I am the assistant general manager, and I have a great deal of responsibility. My boss has noticed extreme changes and decline in my job performance, and she said she’s noticed it becoming worse over the summer.
I’m constantly uncomfortable, stiff, and while in the past it was only a mild inconvenience, now I am completely unable to tolerate even minimal warmth. In my suit at work the other day, I was flushed and my face felt as though it was burning. I felt suffocated in my jacket. My hands, arms, legs and feet had all gotten the burning sensation as well. I took a shower at home and nearly fainted.
I do not know much about Multiple Sclerosis, but I know that I have just ignored these random episodes for several years now… however, now that my boss is noticing and has become extremely concerned, I felt compelled to act. I went to the ER the other night and they found nothing, again. Later that night I was doing genealogy research (as I always do), and I saw that I could download my raw DNA… naturally curious, I did. Then I stumbled across Promethease and got even more curious. The first things that showed up were all of the indicators making me 6x more likely to develop Multiple Sclerosis. I had 89 markers. Is that was this could be?
