July 2000 
Learning Experience

From December of 1999 through this July I hadn't really noticed anything.  Tim and I did a lot of research and talked to the neurologist about MS and pregnancy.  We learned that pregnancy is kind of a barrier for MS because most women don't have any episodes during pregnancy.  I'm assuming it's all of those wonderful hormones!!  I got pregnant in March of this year.  Unfortunately we lost our son during my 17th week of pregnancy.  For some reason or another my water broke.  No, this has nothing to do with MS, a lot of people have asked me that.  There weren't any medical explanations, only the man upstairs knows why.  (We currently have the all clear to try again!)

With all of that I experienced 18 hours of labor.  Almost one month later I had another small episode.  We had already read that there are a lot of women with MS that have episodes postpartum.  I woke up with both of my legs and feet hurting.  I didn't really think to much of it.  I guess I thought maybe I had slept funny.  It got to the point that morning that I could hardly stand on my feet and my legs began to get that heavy and tingling sensation.  I called my mom and Tim bawling because I didn't know if it was the MS or something else.  They both suggested calling my doctor.  I went to my normal physician and he did some blood tests for my thyroid, kidneys, liver, diabetes and everything else you could possibly think of and he suggested going to the neurologist.

I did go to see my neurologist.  He didn't really offer me much information except for yes, it probably is the MS and I should try to go back to work.  Keep in mind I work in a factory standing on a cement floor.  I came home and after talking with Tim called a neurologist in a bigger city about a half hour away.  They made me an appointment for the end of that week.  I had gone to an informational meeting through the Iowa MS Chapter and listened to this neurologist speak.  I really liked him, so I had picked up his business card.  Luckily, I had kept it all of those months.   I met with that neurologist and went through all of my medical history and all of the MS things I had experienced.  I really like this doctor a lot!!  He thinks that maybe the reason I had this episode was because of going through the labor process and the stress that was involved in the whole experience.

At this time he prescribed Ultram for my legs.  He also told me that he wants to do whatever he can to make things easier and better for me and he thinks that going on one of the MS therapies would help.  This was the first time that the medications were suggested to me, so I did some more research.  I think that I'm going to try Copaxone.  All of the MS therapies are injections that you do at home.  Avonex is a once a week injection, Betaseron is every other day and Copaxone is every day.  Right now I have not started Copaxone because we are trying to get pregnant again.  Once I am pregnant and have delivered I will start it right away.  It has been almost 2 months and I have not experienced anything else.  My biggest suggested to everyone with MS is to make sure you have a doctor you like and one that is willing to help you and listen to you.  Everyone's MS is so different that it's important that they understand what you personally are experiencing.  If you aren't happy with one, there are plenty of doctors out there that are ready and willing to help you.   My attitude towards MS has changed drastically since I've started seeing my new doctor.  I know now that I have someone on my side that is going to go into battle with me against MS.