[LordKathen]

I have come to be quite addicted to you guys, have come to trust your opinions, advice, and help. The other day, I revieled my MS here on IW.
It's not a big deal, but a few of you showed real concern and caring. Thank you all. I have decided to share my story with you guys for many reasons. One, it helps to talk about it. Two, maybe someone out there can relate to a symptom of mine, and MS being quite hard to diagnose, it may ring a bell and help. And three, well, I like to be honest. Here we go.

It all started the fall of 2001 when my left leg went numb. Not dead numb, just kinda fuzzy numb, ya know. The doc prescribed Prednizone as an anti-inflamitory for my nerves, thinking I may just have a blocked or swollen nerve somewhere in my leg. A few weeks later the fuzzy feeling was only in my foot(still is). I went about my life not thinking much of it, thinking it was just some wierd thing I would get use to. Towards the end of december things got pretty stressfull around here. First, I fell at work on some ice and broke 2 ribs (I delivered appliances for Sears at the time), then my wife, Amber, (Lady Aberdene) was rear ended by some jerk and the car was totaled (she was OK for the most part). Dealing with L+I insurance for work loss for me and the insurance companies in Ambers accident was enough to drive anyone insane!
The point of me telling this in the story, was the stress factor that probably had a lot to do with the exacerbation and eventual diagnoses of MS. For, Jan. 12 2002, it all began to get worse. It started out that said morning when I was in the shower and got a bit dizzy. I had wednesdays off at that time, and this was wed. so I did'nt have to go to work. As the day went on the dizziness got worse and worse. I figured it would go away and went to bed that nite.
The next morning I went to work, dizziness still intact. I drove a 24 foot box truck about 200 miles a day to do the deliveries from town to town. I drove that day, being stubbern and still thinking the dizziness would subside.
I took some Dramamine (road sickness pills), and they had no affect. I drove back to the dock from the last delivery and went home. On the way home everthing changed. About 2 blocks from my house, like a lite switch, everything went double. By this time the dizziness had gotten pretty bad and had planned to call in sick the next day. I had assumed I had some wierd flu bug, and planned to sleep it off. After the double vision, I pulled over, blinked a bunch of times, rubbed my eyes, etc.. Nothing worked. I drove home, slowly, told Amber what was up, and went to bed. She was as worried as me by this point. The next day, I called my doc, and he called in a prescription of something, I cant remember, and said to stay in bed. That did'nt work either. By that evening, my head started hurting baddly. So bad in fact that we called my parents to babysit, and went to the ER. I am a big man, that has been through a lot in my life, and this was probably the most painfull event in my life. I actually started balling in the ER. I dont know if it was more fear of what was happening to me, or the pain. Probably both.
They got me into a room quickly, and proceded to do a CT scan. They found nothing. They put some patch for dizziness on the back of my ear, thinking maybe it was Labrythitis (fluid in the inner ear). Did'nt work. They eventually sent me home, and said to lay still in bed, and eventually the fluid would drain, and subside my symptoms.
Once agian, that did'nt work either. I then had the worse weekend of my life. The pain in my head was unbairable. I just laid in bed waiting, still not knowing what was going on. I knew it was something more than fluid in my ear.
That Monday I called my doc again, and he said to come in that afternoon.
I told him the events of the weekend and the about the ER visit, then realized that I had'nt mentioned the double vision yet, and told him. He emediatly ordered an MRI and after that was done, I went home. He called me that nite about nine and told me the outcome of the MRI. I want to take a moment here to say that no matter how many docs out there are greedy, incompotent, or just plain assholes, there are those who, like this doctor, are outstanding and deserve alot more than they get in life. He called me at nine at nite to talk with me, knowing that I was terrified and in pain.
Anyway, what he told me, both relieved me and freaked me out. It looked to the inhouse Nuerologist at KGH, that it was MS that was cousing the symptoms.
Here is where things start to get lucky for me. I called all the family with the news and realised that my cousin worked for a Nuerologist. She got me an appointment that thursday. I did the testing with him ( EEG, vision test, hearing test, etc.) to get the official diagnoses. He also prescribed a 3 day regimine of Solu Medrol, 1 gram a day IV, for 3 days. It is like Prednisone, but much heavier and obviously much more. This would shut down the symptoms and therefore make me feel much better.
After about 4 days I did feel much better, and spent most my time learning everything I could about MS. I have only had 1 other symptomatic sequence since then. That is reffered to as "L'ermittes syndrome". It is an elecrtical feeling throughout my body when I move my neck. I take an anti-depresant called Effexor XR, that keeps this feeling under control for the most part.

Well, that is about the jist of it. I have learned a lot about myself through all this, and through some trying times, have grown closer to my wife than I ever thought possable.

Please know that I am not looking for any sympothy from you guys. I, in advance, appreciate any comments and caring from you. For what its worth, the biggest thing I have learned is trust. I trust all of you, and care for you.

Paul Martin--- [img]smile.gif[/img]

EDIT, for color...

[ 03-26-2003, 10:36 PM: Message edited by: LordKathen ]