Hindsight

My first big relapse was in 2004 with a numb face, a headache that wouldn’t shift, optic neuritis and vertigo. It’s strange to think of it now, but the medical profession couldn’t explain the cause at the time. Probably because I presented the symptoms individually, rather than all in one go. I then experienced a

Relapse

Just thought I’d let y’all know that I had a relapse in the last couple of months. It mainly involved vertigo and dizziness, so I spent a good couple of weeks crashing into things, nearly falling over, feeling nauseous and actually vomiting a few times. It also involved some fatigue, L’Hermitte’s and a not unpleasant hot

Yearly neurologist meeting – 2009

Yesterday, I saw my neurologist’s registrar – Dr Somebodyorother plus one student. I had to recap my entire MS history from Day 1 again. I always find it difficult to remember the relapses prior to diagnosis as I didn’t recognise them for what they were at the time. I did my usual set of tests.

My MS History – Part Six

After one more session of double-checking with the consultant where he had yet another student in tow – it seemed I was becoming a textbook example of nystagmus – it became apparent that the steroids really hadn’t done their job. So to suppress my existing symptoms I was prescribed Gabapentin. I had been given details

My MS History – Part Five

Between visiting the two consultants, I needed to do my research and also go for a lumbar puncture. I hated the steroids, they had the dual effect of causing severe heartburn, while simultaneously making me incredibly hungry. At the time it seemed that they didn’t do me any good. Particularly as in the following weeks,

My MS History – Part Four

I had a job interview in two days time. With a rare evening free of what I called brain fog, I was sitting at home preparing a presentation for it. My wife, unable to take the wait, had earlier phoned my neurologist to press him for the results of my MRI. As I was staring

My MS History – Part Three

I was now on the books of a consultant neurologist. With my stomach tying itself in knots, I re-capped my symptoms with one of his grim-faced registrars. I spent 45 minutes undergoing the usual tests. I did my trick of not being able to walk heel to toe. I watched a pen travel in front

My MS History – Part Two

It was a brain tumour – it had to be. How else could it be explained? The GP said no heavy lifting, so maybe there was an outside chance of it being an enlarged blood vessel, ready to haemorrhage at any second. Everyone has something they are frightened of. Something so unimaginably horrific they never

My MS History – Part One

Once somebody tells you, you have MS, you start to put a jigsaw together. You wonder whether that strange tingling sensation you had in your right arm last year had something to do with it, or in my case the vertigo diagnosis from the previous year and the little numb patch between my big toe