Know Multiple Sclerosis

I'm not sure I've ever felt the fear that I felt on the day I found out I had multiple lesions on my brain. I had an MRI done a few days earlier and I called into my neurologist's office to get the results.

It was June 1999, three weeks before my wedding. I had been seeing this doctor since October, 1998, when my first symptoms appeared. I had numbness and tingling along the right side of my body. The symptoms disappeared after several weeks. No other symptoms had appeared since October. He was ready to send me on my way and I asked him to do a brain MRI just to rule out MS. He hesitantly agreed.

I called from my work and got his receptionist on the phone. She proceeded to tell me that I had multiple lesions on my brain and that I needed to set up an appointment right away. I immediately noticed my heart racing and my face getting flush. I went to my boss' office and told him I was ill. I left work and remember driving home wondering what this meant. Would I be able to have kids? Would I end up in a wheelchair? Should I still get married? I was a wreck. I was also wondering why in the world a receptionist would be telling me that news over the phone rather than the doctor himself.....

When I got home, I told my then fiancee and she was amazing. She told me we would work through it and things would be OK. We got married three weeks later and I started Avonex upon getting back from our honeymoon (incidentally, I did change neurologists). The multiple sclerosis has been under control ever since.

I tell this story because I want the newly diagnosed to know that it is normal to feel scared and sad; but, there is reason for hope.