01. Diagnosis

During my 27 years, I have generally been a healthy person.  Yes, I get sick a few times through the year that always ends up with a lingering cough that drives my Dad and boyfriend crazy, but I have never had an on-going condition.

Then, I started working as a first year associate at a law firm in my hometown of Los Angeles, California on September 18, 2017.  About 2 weeks after starting work, I started an unlimited membership at Orangetheory Fitness.  This is relevant because about 2 weeks after my unlimited membership started and about 1 month after I started working full-time as a lawyer, some strange things starting happening to my body.  We didn’t know if it was associated with the stress of starting work or if Orangetheory was just too intense of a workout for me.

Specifically, if I put my chin down towards my chest, what seemed like an electrical charge went through my entire body and lasted for about 15 seconds or so.  Additionally, I had short bursts of pain and tingling in my fingers and toes that lasted for about 30 seconds at a time.  I ignored these symptoms for about a week.  I have never had symptoms like this before, and I was scared.  I thought ignorance is bliss, and maybe this will all go away on its own.  Then, the final symptom arrived.  For, seriously, 1 week I could not feel my waist.  Imagine putting pants on and buttoning them but not being able to feel that the pants were even there.  It was the strangest feeling.

At that point, I remember deciding that I was going to admit that something was wrong.  I told my parents about my symptoms, and I made an appointment with my general practitioner to get checked out.  I explained to her what was going on, and she did a physical exam that checked out okay.  To be better safe than sorry, she decided to also do a full blood work panel.  This came back showing that I was extremely deficient in Vitamin B, Folate, and Vitamin D.  I started taking vitamins to counteract these deficiencies and settled into my work and workout routine, but nothing seemed to change.

My doctor suggested that I meet with a neurologist since there was no change.  I decided to pursue this further because I worried that everything would get worse if it was not treated.  I met with my neurologist for the first time in February 2018 (so basically exactly a year from now).  He did a physical exam, and told me that he thought I had inflammation in my neck.  To confirm, he wanted to have a visual evoked potential test done and an MRI of my brain and neck.  The visual evoked potential test was testing to make sure my eye sight and nerve reactions had not been affected.  It came back normal.  The MRI did not.

I remember when my neurologist released my MRI results.  He released them on a Friday, and my appointment with him was not until that next Wednesday.  The report stated things weren’t normal, and when I called my neurologist to discuss the result, he wouldn’t answer my calls.  He apparently wanted to wait until we talked in person at my follow-up appointment, which was sometime in March 2018 for a time reference since what he would tell me would not be great news.

I went to my appointment that next week with my boyfriend of 7 years.  My parents and sister couldn’t go with me because they had some other appointments that conflicted.  I remember going into the room, and the neurologist showing us the MRI images.  The images showed about 5 lesions in my brain and 1 very large lesion in my neck.  The 1 in my neck was the one causing that electrical charge when I put my chin down.  My neurologist told me that these lesions were consistent with multiple sclerosis (MS). Additionally, when the lesions were shown using contrast, some of the lesions lit up a little bit, which basically was the nail that sealed the coffin. This is because to be diagnosed with MS, there must be damage such as lesions in two parts of your nervous system, which I had. (Two examples are your brain and spinal chord.) Additionally, the damage must have occurred at different times. The contrast showing certain lesions brighter than others means some are older than others, which indicates they occurred at different times.

Hearing that I had MS basically broke my boyfriend’s heart.  No one thought that the results were going to show that I would have a life-long condition.  I thought it would be something that could be fixed and healed overtime, but I was wrong.  Yes, my neurologist explained to me that there are advancements in treatment programs for MS and that we caught my MS very early, so I won’t likely be in a situation where I lose my mobility at an early age.  However, at that point, I wasn’t fully listening to what he was saying, I was just thinking about how I am going to have to go home to tell my family and break their hearts too. 

When I think back on my diagnosis, I am thankful for a few things.  I am thankful that I did thoroughly pursue the cause of my strange symptoms because I was able to be diagnosed early, and being diagnosed early helps limit and prolong the damage that MS causes.  I am also fortunate to have such a supportive family and boyfriend.  They were very upset when we first found out, but after a few hours of processing, we were all able to come together and figure out how to best manage the disease.