Just wanted to share a

I'm glad you got a quick answer when you sought it out. It's wonderful to have a place like this to come and work through it....so glad you found us!! Hope you are doing okay....you appear to be a very strong person....hang in there and keep us up-to-date with how you are doing.

Sorry to hear about the dx, but at least you know what you are up against now.

My first reaction to the dx was relief, and then I went through an emotional rollar coaster for awhile. Be kind to yourself this first year.

Well . . . sorry it was confirmed, and that you have to come out of denial.

I was first dx with probable MS in 1991, but after reading that there were no treatment options available, I promptly went into denial. They had done a LP, but I never asked the results and I refused a MRI. The writing was on the wall though . . . as I laid mostly paralyzed for 3 months.

When I would go see my doctor for anything, over the next several years, he was not allowed to mention the "M" word. I would tell him about the medical concern of the day/week/year, and he would test me for everything it might be. At the end of the testing, most times he would just have to say "everything is fine" . . . then off I'd go on my merry way again.

When I couldn't deny it any more, I still did. I proposed all sorts of potential dx to my doc, and he humored me by pointing out why it couldn't be "that". One day he had finally had enough though . . . and he said, "you have been to 4 specialists over the years, who have all agreed you have MS".

No more denial for me.

I knew all that time, just as you probably did deep down too. I appreciated the time I had to get used to the idea that it might be a disabling chronic illness, and I am glad the doctors let me live in denial in the meantime.

You obviously have very strong coping mechanisms, and you will get through this time of reckoning. A month or three is not going to make any difference at this point in the game . . . so take the time you need to come to grips with this before making any decisions.

Cherie