How long did it take to get your official diagnosis?
I have traced my first symptoms back 1989. I was officially diagnosed this past January. I went to different doctors and E.Rs over the years, but I was always told they had no idea what was wrong with me and that the issues will probably just go away.... UGH!!
I now know that the different issues I was having over the years have names!! MS Hug was one - that made me feel like I was going to have a heart attack or my lungs were failing. Synesthesia was another - that one was doing all kinds of funny things with my legs and arms. Paresthesias was another - scared the heck out of me when my hands went beet red and started burning, then going numb, then burning again.
None of things even got me a prescription let alone a diagnosis. It wasn't until I started losing vision in my right eye that I finally had a doctor say "This looks like something is happening with your brain. Let's send you for an MRI." So the brain MRI got me sent to a neurologist who sent me for a spinal MRI. Turns out I have 6 very large lesions in my brain and over a dozen down my spine....
I sometimes wonder if I would have less scarring and deficits if I had been diagnosed many years earlier and started on the DMDs (Disease Modifying Drugs). Wonder and doubt never helped anyone though, so I don't dwell on it.
I was in all honesty releived and almost giddy when I got my diagnosis... weird huh? The reason was that my twitching and shaking were getting worse each year and I thought that I might have Parkinson's Disease (which in my opinion is much worse in some respects than MS). And now I have a name to put onto all of these crazy things happening to my body. I have something of substance to look at it and have a chance to fight against!!
I hear a lot of people that say their life ended when they got the diagnosis... I feel that I got some of my sanity back and a path forward to taking some control back over my body, mind and environment.
I think everyone had a tale, or horror story, of their route to diagnosis. I was like you. I was relieved that my enemy had been identified. Now, I knew its name, I could find out all about it. Understand its strengths and weaknesses. We have to look forward as the past is history, but we can shape the future.........
Was very quick for me, optic neuritis in May 11 & told it could develop to MS, Nov that year a big relapse & diagnosed within that month after an MRI scan. Wish I felt like you guys, relief. For me I'm *still* grieving, I turn 24 next week & it feels like a constant battle & hard to keep thoughts on the good things in life.