My story began in 1996 I was in a car accident and got a really bad whiplash with constant headaches/migraines. When I say constant I truely mean there has not been one minute since that morning in 96 that I have been head pain free. I had gone to many doctors and after 3 years of feeling like a garbage dump I demanded to have an Mri done. I took the mri films into a local Neuro and I asked for his opinion. The first films were clean but 2 years later more mri films had spots/lesions. The neuro said the scary word MS and that I needed to start treatment right then. I started to be seen at the local VA hospital. I told them I had problems with migraines and that I had just been diagnosed with MS. They were a total failure at treating the migraines and it wasn't until they were treating me for 4 years did they start to do anything towards the MS. Currently I have the migraines, facial numbness that sometimes feels like I have just been to the dentist and other days I feel like I have been punched in the face by Mike Tyson. I have left hand swelling, stiffness and numbness that the dr's say is a part of the MS but I think it is something else. The VA messed up getting the spinal tap fluid sent out to the right lab in time so I have questionable findings and I refuse to redue the tap unless I am completely sudated. The 2 week migraine after words was soooooooo bad I wanted to rip off the heads of every doctor at the VA. There is not enough unkind and ugly words in all the languages on this planet to express what I think and feel about the VA. Since the spinal tap I have had numbness down my lower back, into my anis, and into my vaginia. I have lower leg cramps every minute of every night and day. I feel like I just got up off of the floor after having my legs crossed for 3 hours. My ankles feel like I just sprained them and many times I can not find a comfortable position for them. The soles of my feet both ache, sting, and burn. Just getting up in the morning my feet feel like I am walking on broken glass. I have right hip pain and mumbness with stinging going down the outside of my thigh from my hip to my knee. I am now having memory problems and last Dec I got a headcold that had my head running like Niagra falls had moved into my head. I was coughing and sneezing so hard I could hear my back pop. The cold lasted for 2 months and then it turned in to a sinus infection with dizziness. I am still having dizziness problems as of today in mid june. My energy is gone, my memory is gone, my ability to focus and conplete tasks is gone. I need to get back to work but there simply is no motivation left in my soul. Nov 08 I had minor shoulder surgery. Everything is healed but I really need my own energizer bunny to help me keep going and going. All the meds I have been on over the years has made me gain lots of weight and nothing has taken it off again. Now I have entered the peri menopause stage and the hot flashes are killing me. last summer I started using the avonex but it made my migraines worse and gave me 4 days of flu like feelings every week. Right now I am not using anything. Me and needles have never been friends and never will be. Getting shots daily or weekly is not ever going to happen.
none of my family, friends or coworkers knows of my ms diagnosis just my doctors so some days it is hard to keep my painted clown face on.
Post Edited (dragonflyand rainbows) : 6/17/2009 1:05:06 PM (GMT-6)