I am an event planner by craft. I am always on the go, with two little boys and a household to run. After working a 10-hour day in espadrilles, my feet were killing me, to the point where I had to remove them at the end of my event to finish clean up. Fast forward to a few weeks later, when I had to run a 12-hour wedding day with numb legs and feet. One of the hardest days trying to focus on not tripping or falling, and then came the loud sounds, and double vision, and sensitivity to light. My brain literally felt like a bowl of oatmeal. I couldn't piece two words together to save my life. Wondering what I could do to help this: contacting my endocrinologist, nutritionist, and general practitioner, doing massages and epsom salt baths, staying off my Peloton thinking it was a pinched nerve.. nothing helped! I had had enough when the numbness and tingling made its way upward to my chest, making me think I was now having a heart attack. On a Sunday afternoon, I headed to the local ER where they drew blood and we waited. They found nothing. My blood looked "perfect." No radiologist or neurologist were on staff at the hospital on a Sunday, so that prompted me to research neurologists for the following week, which leads me to my diagnosis:
After a month of crazy symptoms (total paresthesia and numbness from rib cage to toes, pain and stiffness) believed to be in relation to thyroid medication (post 3 year thyroid cancer and RAI), a single weekend visit to the ER which spurred a push to see a neurologist, and scans: thoracic and cervical spine and brain scans, all of which showed lesions. First neurologist thought possible benign tumor, lupus, Lyme’s disease, or severe inflammation due to herniated disk, turned into none of the above. After radiology report they believed possible MS, but still not ruled until lumbar puncture and bloodwork results were returned. First neurologist told me to get second opinion and go from there. Things moved quickly: my new neurologist admitted me to the ER on a Tuesday late evening to push procedures ASAP... spinal tap, followed by a five day cycle of high dose IV steroids inpatient, and then the final diagnosis by Thursday: RRMS. Remitting-relapsing Multiple Sclerosis.