I have been a member since 2013 while I was awaiting 'confirmation' of my dx for MS. I kind of already knew that I had it, just needed to get the final say so from the doctors. Especially since I looked at my own MRI's, read the reports, and looked over my blood panels for my LP. After ten years of dealing with doctors without medical insurance and keeping track of how I was going along, it basically came down to it was either MS or I was my own disorder
Which honestly was a good thing, since 10 years ago my PCP at the time told me that I either had hemochromatosis (which oddly enough I still do have
), Lupus eh not too bad, MS okay getting a bit worse, MD ugh are you kidding me, or ALS why bother... As a way to try and explain a spontaneous fracturing of the L3 vertebrae with a bulging hernation to the disc. And the severe though completely unnoticed by me muscular spasms I was having. Which is how they believe my back broke, the muscles just kind of snapped it like a wishbone.
Not the most classic symptom of MS I will say, or of any of the possible dx's he gave me. It really wasn't classic of anything to happen to a then 25 year old. So he was pretty much pulling at straws to think of something, anything really that he could give me by way of explanation. But since I didn't have medical insurance at the time, it was also treated as a well... what can you do no matter what the reason for it is... you can't afford the testing and even if you could, you couldn't afford any treatments if there's any treatments even available. So here take 2 robaxins and pop a few morphine tabs and call me in the morning for a refill.
Morphine quickly changed to Lortab though since I didn't feel any pain on the morphine, which meant I wasn't taking it easy, until it wore off an left me crippled on the floor screaming in agony for the 2-3 hours before I could take my next dose. Please doc, lemme feel some pain.
And that went on for a while, pain pills that I rarely took unless I was starting to feel like I was going into shock from the pain, and what I thought at the time was a bunch of muscle relaxants (I'm now taking 4 different ones several times a day and they don't really do much of anything but try to kill off my liver, along with 2 anti-convulsents and an anti-depressant 'for pain'.)
It's entirely probable that I've had MS since childhood, but no way to ever really know on that, but my doctor did take some of my earlier medical records into account when trying to pick out the possibilities. ALS popped up into the mix because I did have repeat major concussions when I was younger with quite a few minor concussions. But honestly that was the only one that really scared me as a possibility. The rest of them were just like ugh, fine whatever. That one being in the list was like 'Ummm say what?'
As for my reasons for joining the boards, while there's a bit of the emotional support, probably tons more than I'll ever admit to or even realize
. Mostly I just love knowledge, in any form and really any subject. So being here on the boards is not only a way to share some knowledge, but also to gain a lot of it. And not only pertaining to MS, there's plenty of people who might have similar experiences with completely different dx's that find their way to the boards here.
So don't feel as though you can no longer post because your doctor thinks it's just anxiety and stress... Trust me, anxiety is a big thing with MS and tons of other things, there might be a thread that can help you out by how someone else dealt with theirs, or you might be able to pass on some words of wisdom to the rest of us when you get yours under control. Same goes for stress, or a restless night's sleep. We all have our little bags of tricks, sometimes it might help someone else, sometimes it doesn't but hey feel free to share and read up on it and try what other's have.
Cup of chamomile tea before bed, a weighted blanket to curl under (courtesy trick of autism suffers which replaced swaddling for ease), a rubber band to snap around the wrist when feeling anxious, four way breathing to combat stress (another one stolen from asthma treatment which in turn was stolen from yoga which got it from martial arts) it's where you breath slowly in for the count of four hold it for the count of four, slowly breath out for the count of four and hold it for the count of four. In martial arts they do that before breaking the boards.
Of those tips, only the 4 way breathing works for me, I get too hot under covers and if chamomile worked I wouldn't still be up at 2:30 in the morning typing
but it is very tasty. And the rubber band doesn't work for me because I pretty much snap it non-stop I have a compulsion to fiddle with things and end up with a bruise from it. But hey, that's just me, for my mother rubber bands work like a charm. And slip my aunt a cup of chamomile tea in place of her usual and she'll fall asleep mid-sentence after just a sip. Cover my father up with a heavy blanket and he'll be out cold until you rip the covers off of him.