@Spikelives 

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Spikelives

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.
@Stumbler

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.........

@reens

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.