hi I am Heather DeBold, i am a 36 y/o Caucasian female from Orlando, FL....and I have MS
My Story - When i look back I can see where i had symptoms prior to diagnosis. But it was until the end of March 2010 when I lost my eye sight that MS was even a possibilty. I was at work one day and it felt like i got something in my eye... no biggie... but after a few days I got worried because I couldnt see., My eye doc was booked so saw a retina specialist that told me i had a scratch on my eye and gave me drops for "dry eye". after a week no change so got in with eye doc... my pupil was huge and i couldnt see any light... so i asked her ...how do we fix this (I am a fixer)... she said it was perminant....that she was 98% sure it was vascular....now mind ya... my doc appt was on my birthday..so being told you are perm blind on your birthday was even worse, next day she called me and told me she kept reviewing my case and was trying to get me into a Nuero opthamologist....because there was a small chance it was nuerological and not vascular. got a call the next day from Nuero Op and she had me get an emergency MRI,,,,MRI showed clear as days the MS Liasons..that was 4/1/2010. I was also diagnosed with Optic Nueritis, Steroids later I got 90% of my eye sight back. I was put on Rebif.. but i relapsed in August and was put on steroids again,,, Doc put me on strongest dose of rebif... but my MS is being agressive right now.,,so we are testing right now to see what other treatments I am eligible for .
My worst day... i had 3 i guess... The day i was told....you have "MS"...i dont know what that is...all i know of it was its baddddd and i would end up as one of Jerry's Kids or worse.... i was confusing it with Muscular Dystrophy...my life as i knew it was coming to end...i knew no one with MS...not a soul.
the first few weeks after my steroids i was in denial...i didnt want to hear anything about MS and didnt even want to know anything about it... I felt fine...i must not be sick. I am a VERY independent person... and am a fixer... I couldnt grasp that this cant be fixed.
my other hardest day was during my last relapse... some of my cervical Lesions were active and impairing my walking.. i will admit i had a very hard time accepting I had to walk with cane... i got good at holding up walls and doorjams.... was this my new life? I could not accept it. Today I am happy to say i am walking unassisted.
MS has brought me blessings...i met my BEST friend through this... she helped me every step of the way and NEVER judged me for my thoughts or actions.
Its has changed how i do things...i have good days and bad days with energy and get vertigo on stairs. so i simply avoid stairs and I am bad but still push myself as far as energy goes... i will learn
dont let MS control your life...LIVE ... you can still do the sames things as before...just have to do it differently sometimes
