just got my diagnosis
 

...just as the disease started its course.

I'm a 25 year old mom of two (a toddler and a babe) and I'm currently doing some part time work from home. After the birth of my daughter (#2) I had patches of numbness in the legs that came and went, plus a short bout of tingling in the hands that came and went. What sent me to the neuro was when one of my feet turned numb and stayed that way for weeks.

They worked me up for peripheral neuropathy, with everything "okay" until the second attack, which was only two months after the first ended and left me with severe leg weakness, numbness up the whole leg into the behind, and ataxia. I had lost all deep tendon reflexes from both knees down. They suspected either MS or CIDP and told me that my symptoms were atypical of MS but since I was a young female needed to rule it out.

So...after MRIs, SSEP and and LP all within a few weeks, I got my diagnosis. I've been lurking around here since I got my MRI which showed "possible" (their words) demyelinating lesions in the c-spine and one in the brain. I figured I had MS from that point on, even though I was not given a diagnosis until after the LP showed oligoclonal bands. The doc thinks we caught the first of the attacks, that I did not have MS prior to this point.

My first step is to figure things out, med wise... I know I want to be on LDN as soon as possible, with three attacks in 6 months I want to start that asap. I have to wait until Jul.8 to see another neuro who is known for being aware of it and who rx's it. I still haven't decided on the DMDs, I'm leaning towards adding in copaxone once I am on LDN. Also trying to make a decision as to whether to try for another child, since that will obviously affect when i start the copaxone.

eh, enough about me, I hope to start chatting with you all soon. To be honest after lurking here MS seemed a whole lot less scary and I was more accepting of the diagnosis when it finally came.

Again, Welcome PL.....Sheesh, hate it when a young Parent get this lousy disease..:mad: Congrats on the little ones.:) They are a handful when your health is a-OK, but with MS, your challenges may be many.

Do you have a supportive Hubby/Family. That would help a lot. So sorry for your DX, but glad you found us. We will be here for you..

Welcome to the Family..:hug:

Welcome! Sorry to hear about the DX, but glad you found us. :hug:

Hi PL and welcome to NeuroTalk. I'm so sorry you got the MS diagnosis.....you're so young. But the good thing is you caught it after the first attack and can get right on a good medication soon. I'm on LDN and love it. Love it, love it, love it.

I hope you'll continue to come here and post. This is a great board and there are lots of very friendly and supportive people here. I don't know if you've visited the Stumble Inn yet or not but that's where we go to get away from MS and just kick back and have fun. :)

Good luck finding a doctor that will write a Rx for LDN. I've been wanting to try it for three years now and so far, no one will give me a Rx. My regular doctor is considering it, but I actually had to make a deal with him just to get him to consider it. The deal was that I start exercising and then go back and see him in a few weeks.

He only said that he'd think about it, and he has to ask my neuro about it first. Argh!

My neuro told me that he doesnt think that LDN does anything, and then went on to tell me that he doesnt think the injectible that he Rx-ed me doesnt do anything either! (great...nice vote of confidence there) So, now I want to quit the Copaxone and just do LDN, since the LDN doesnt require that I stab myself daily to take it. If the C is not going to do anything for me, why ruin my skin taking it?

:Wave-Hello: Hiya PL!

Welcome to the place you never thought you'd be!
It's good to hear that your neuro thinks that you were diagnosed early. You can purportedly reduce relapses and slow disability with meds now, so finding this early can only be in your favor.

Come on in, set a spell, jump in when you feel comfortable and ask whatever questions you have, someone always answers!:)

Welcome!
Sorry you needed to be here, but happy we can be here for you. :hug:

Welcome, nice to meet you, but sorry for your diagnosis. I hope things look up for you moving ahead and you can work with your doctors to your satisfaction.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! I have tons of things I'd love to ask others about and discuss, but we'll see how much I end up getting around to :)

Heh, you can say that again! :winky: and again, and again.... I started out on the peripheral neuropathy forum. When my ANA, sed rate and similar blood tests came back I naively thought we had ruled out the big bad stuff. Oops, guess not! :eek:

Yep, this is one thing I am truly grateful for. I also told my mother in law, when I told her about my dx-- "Hey, if I'm gonna have a horrible disease, at least it's one that gets tons of research attention!"

Hi PL, Welcome to Neurotalk although I wish you didn't have to be here. But glad to know the doctor caught it early. That is some good news. This forum was a life support for me in the beginning months when I was first diagnosed. Lots of great people here. Hope to see you around! :hug:

Welcome PL...sorry for your dx, but glad you found this place...lots of info, hugs, laughs, and support.
I told a friend today that if I had to get a disease, I'm glad it's one that has meds to prevent advancement. And there's plenty of research ongoing to find a cure...
Keep in touch, and ask for any info...there's lots of great people here!:D

Took the words right out of my mouth!! I literally said the exact same thing in response to my diagnosis. :)

Welcome from me too.

I've always thought that MS isn't as bad as some other horrible diseases. At least whilst I'm not so bad anyway. I'd probably change my mind about that if I got much worse though.

I hope you get the support you need from those around you and us of course.
:)

my mother has ms...
 

My name is richard 24 and my mom is 47. I will try to make this as short as i can, my mom was diagnosed with MS approx. 11 years ago. She takes capaxon shots as well along with other meds and i think that helped her alot. But over the years i would ask my doctor about is the side affects to capoxon. Over time her muscles in legs have been disaperaring. I dont know if this is side-effect or body not beeint able to take it. I rememeber as a teen having to hold my mother foot because she was in so much pain and looked like her foot was going to brake. This was before she was diagnosed. Tired all the time and falling wothout warning. She also had bllod clots in her legs. But I hope and I will pray that they caught it soon enough that it doesnt progress to this stage. If you have any questions or concerns and i will do my best to answering them, when i provived for my single mother. I pray for you and your young family. Hope you get feeling better.

Welcome poetic license, and Nu-Nu09.

PL you have young kids, work and just dx with MS. I did too, at the time. I still went on to have more. The treatments available now, were not available then. I just kept on living my life as normal as possible. I hope you don't have any more attacks. :) That would be a blessing.

Nu-Nu you were young when your Mom got her MS dx. So how did you feel at 11 years old when you found out? Also, how is your Mom doing now at 47 years old?

Nice to meet both of you. :)

Welcome to the forum, PL.

You sound like a Canadian, eh? ;)

Sorry to hear about the dx at such a young age ... just a few years younger than I was at the time. I have (almost) raised two daughters now though, almost on my own, so you will hopefully be pretty good for many years to come too. :hug:

Are you considering Copaxone with your LDN? Have you found a neuro or doc to rx LDN for you?

Cherie

Yes, Sally, I do have a verrrrrry supportive husband, and family as well. That helps a lot. My sister fiddled with her shifts at work and came on a day's notice when my lumbar puncture got unexpectedly cancelled and I had to reschedule on a day my husband was off. I am so so grateful for their support. ... and also thankful for everyone's support here, because as much as family tries, one thing they can't do is understand what it's like to have MS, to live MS.

Cherie, I'm actually not Canadian but close enough to the border! I have an appt with a supposedly LDN friendly neuro, my original, now ex-neuro is an unmentionable &^%$ and basically made it seem like he doesn't want me as a patient unless I got on a DMD, NOW. Tried to scare me by telling me of MS induced dementia cases. I need some time to think and he's not exactly helping.

Not sure about the Copaxone at this time, i think it makes sense to give the LDN a chance, I'm not so sure yet. Then I wonder if I should just play it safe and do both. I'm currently following the CCSVI work closely and would like to investigate treating that in the future.