Mindy's Diagnosis Story

I would like to share my MS experiences and what I've learned with everyone.  I know personally that this disease is very scary and it was somewhat comforting for me to read others' stories when I first learned I had it.  It helped me to realize that there are tons of people out there that have experienced the same things I have and that I'm not the only one.

Tim and I were married in June of 1998 while he was attending culinary school.  He came back to Iowa that October.  After talking and talking we decided that after our first anniversary we would try to have a baby.  I absolutely couldn't wait for June to come!!

In May, I remember feeling a little dizzy; almost like motion sickness for a couple of days.  I went to my physician and he thought maybe I had an inner ear infection.  He prescribed some motion sickness pills and they seemed to work pretty well.

Saturday of that week I woke up with double vision and blurriness in my right eye.  At first, I just kind of blew if off thinking that I had something (?I'm not sure what?) in my eye and it would clear up.  For the rest of the weekend it stayed that way and sometime that weekend I had a horrible headache that woke me up in the middle of the night.  I went back to doctor and he referred me to an eye doctor.  A few days later I went to see her and everything looked fine to her.  She decided to send me in for an MRI (brain scan).  I was absolutely scared to death!  No one seemed to know what was going on and I had no idea what this MRI would be like.

My MRI took 1 1/2 hours, yes, that's 1 1/2 hours of laying perfectly.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have a hard time sitting still for 10 minutes let alone an hour and a half!!  A couple of days after the MRI I had another appointment with the eye doctor.  At this point my eye was still blurry.  She showed us the MRI and pointed out the spots of demyelination, which at that point didn't mean much to me.  Then she explained how demyelination can point toward having MS.  It took everything I had not to break down and cry.  She then made me an appointment with a neurologist.  Finally outside in the parking lot I let go . . . and cried and cried.  What is MS??  What is this going to do to me?  What the heck is a neurologist?  Will we still be able to have a baby??  I had so many questions and so much fear.

After we got back home I jumped on the internet and started investigating.  I learned quite a bit in the next few days before my appointment.  The neurologist went through the normal little tests . . . walking, walking heel to toe, hopping on one leg at a time, checking my strength and reflexs and on and on.  Everything seemed fine except for the eye.  I still had blurry vision in my right eye and whenever I tried to look over to the right my eye would flutter.  He showed us the MRI again pointing out the demyelination and the inflammation.  He backed up the theory on me having MS and thoroughly explained the disease.  I had the blurriness for a total of about 4-5 weeks.  The neurologist thought that maybe I had a blind spot in my eye down towards the bottom.

Today my eye is fine and I have had no other problems with it.  I went to the eye doctor earlier this year for a checkup.  I wear glasses anyway, but I had quite a change in my right eye.  I think my perphial vision isn't quite the same with that eye, but at least I have my clear vision back!