Elise
Lake Stevens, WA

My bout with MS started shortly after my second daughter was born in late
2000 when I was 30 years old. When she was about five months old I decided
to try to get back into shape. I enrolled in a Jazzercise class which I had
taken in the past and loved! This time, however, it wiped me out! I felt
terrible after every class. I even felt bad the next day. I thought "Man,
I'm really out of shape!" I didn't know it then, but I think it was the
fatigue of MS creeping in. I tried exercising more! Running and working out.
I still felt bad.

Then, in June of 2001, I had my first real "attack". We took the girls to
the zoo and I caught a mild flu bug there. The next day I had a migraine.
I had a migraine for an entire month! We jokingly called it "monkey fever"
because of the zoo connection. It wasn't funny really. All I could do was
lay on the floor while the kids played around me. I went to the doctor. He
thought I had a pinched nerve. I thought I was stressed because we had just
moved. He gave me some pain medication and the pain finally went away.
Case closed (I thought).

Then, about a year later I had a second attack. This time it was vertigo.
It was so bad that I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning because I
would feel sick from the room spinning. I was glad to find out that it was
just vertigo. I thought I had a brain tumor! The doctor showed me some
exercises to do to get the fluid moving in there and told me to drink more
water. Eventually the vertigo went away too.

The fatigue was getting worse all the time. It was definitely my worst
symptom. Even when I got a good nights sleep I still felt like I had been
up all night (or had a hangover, take your pick). I tried to take naps and
exercise but it didn't help. Around 2004 I finally went to the doctor for
it. I didn't describe it to her as "fatigue". I wasn't thinking in those
terms yet. I just told her that I felt bad all the time. She asked me if I
was depressed. I said that I was but I wasn't sure if I was sick all the
time because I was depressed, or if I was depressed because I was sick all
the time. She didn't do any blood tests or anything to check for physical
problems. Even if she had they would have come back fine. She just thought
I was depressed and gave me an RX for some anti-depressants. I never got
that RX filled. It probably wouldn't have helped me anyway. I thought
"People are right, getting old stinks!!" I was 34.

Then I got pregnant with my son in 2005. The pregnancy and birth were
normal. I didn't feel too bad as far as my MS goes. When my son was about
nine months old, however, my MS came back with a vengeance! I started
getting, what I called, static electricity shooting down my forearms. It
lasted three months then went away. Then I got flashing lights in my
peripheral vision. This also lasted about three or four months and went
away. I also noticed a slight slurring in my speech (especially when I got
tired), clumsiness, forgetfulness, hearing problems, vision problems (I kept
seeing things flying past me when there was nothing really there) and bowel
issues! I was also having trouble sleeping. My mind would race all night
and I couldn't shut it off. Then, in January of 2008, I was washing the
kitchen floor when I noticed that my left arm felt a little weird in one
spot. Over the next week my entire left arm had gone numb including two of
my fingers and part of my chest. I went to the doctor and she sent me to a
neurologist. He ordered an MRI. The MRI was scheduled for the next week.
In the meantime I was getting a feeling of terrible pressure and pain in my
chest. It was so bad that I went to the emergency room! I thought I was
having a heart attack or something! I wasn't of course.

The results from the MRI were positive for MS. At first I was relieved that
it was MS. I was ready for the doctor to say it was Leukemia or some other
kind of cancer. The doctor got me one round of steroids for the new
symptoms I was having (pain in the chest and burning thighs). The steroids
really helped for about a month. It gave me some time to think about which
medication I should take. Then the doctor ordered a spinal tap to confirm
the MS diagnosis and rule out infections and tumors. In hind sight it was
probably unnecessary. I saw the MRI myself and could clearly see the seven
or eight lesions on my brain and spinal column. Anyway, I had the spinal.
The procedure went fine. I did what they told me to do afterwards. Laid
flat for eight hours and drank lots of water. I thought I was going to be
one of the lucky ones and not get sick. I was very wrong!! I was sick as a
dog for five days! I guess that's one way to lose the last twelve pounds of
baby weight I was still carrying around!

After the steroids wore off I started getting even more new symptoms! My
tongue was numb and I was having several dizzy spells during the day. I was
afraid that it would permanently affect my ability to speak! (I had started
seeing a new doctor at this time, an MS specialist, and I was bugging him to
get me more steroids but he wouldn't do it. I was going to start taking
Copaxone in a couple of weeks so he wanted me to wait.) I chose Copaxone
because it had the least amount of possible side effects. After a couple of
weeks on Copaxone I started to feel pretty good. I asked my husband "Is
this how normal people feel?" I had felt so bad for so long that I had
forgotten how it felt to be healthy! I've only had a couple of really bad
days since I've been on the medication. It's a pain to have to get a shot
everyday but I'm thankful to feel "normal" again. I've even started playing
volleyball again! (now I just worry about throwing my back out!) Some
people complain about turning 40. Not me. I'm looking forward to my 40s
because my 30s really stunk! I'll finally get to enjoy raising my children
as a healthy mom instead of one who can only lay on the floor while they
play around her.