[Erika]

Hello Everyone,

How wonderful that this site exists so that we can share our experiences and offer support to each other. Thank you all for your insight and posts; many of which have helped greatly to realize that we can carry on despite the challenges that we may face.

My MS journey began in 1978 with optic neuritis which was medicated with prednisone and analgesics. MS was suspected straight away but I was 18 years old, attending university over seas and further investigations were not done. Have had several bouts of ON and other neurological manifestations over the years which have mostly left some blurred vision at times, a blind spot in the left eye and manageable spasticity affecting the legs.

Repeat MRIs since 2000 show many brain lesions typical of MS and this along with exclusion of other possibilities has been the basis for a diagnosis. CSF evaluation has not been done as a lumbar puncture seemed to be too risky due to damage of the lower back discs and a trauma induced fusion following some falls in the 1980s. Currently it looks like the RRMS might be progressing to SPMS, or that there may be new lesions affecting the brain stem/spinal cord; so will be seeing an MS neuro specialist in June for further evaluation. We will probably be doing a lumbar puncture under fluoroscopy at that time. The last MRI was done in August of 2011 when I began some additional and new problems did not seem to be remitting. A new cerebellar lesion was detected along with a couple smaller ones near the ventricles.

Since July of 2011 there have been periods of both increased and decreased function but over all, remaining deficits have become a great concern since that time. What seems to be a flair up over the last month has added yet more symptoms to the residual sensory and motor deficits mostly affecting the legs. Primarily cognitive impairment, memory loss and a decrease in coordination of the hands/arms are most affected recently. These symptoms are new to me, and in combination with blurred vision, it makes using a computer or writing a slow process. For example, it has taken 45 minutes for me to compose and type this in a word document, use spell check and then copy and paste it to this forum (a management tactic that is proving to be useful for emails etc).

All of this has brought me to this site in the hope of gaining more information, sharing experiences and support.
Thank you once again for being here.

Erika