A word in advance- I'm sorry this became so long, I guess i just wanted to put it all out there at once. I hope the length of this note doesn't dis-encourage people from reading it. I look forward to any and all responses! :) So I was brave enough to make an account after lurking around here the past few few days. I decided I should make a little post here just to introduce myself. My main symptoms, I guess i should call it my first "attack", started one night 9 months ago, out of nowhere. It was scary, to say the least. For a few weeks I just didn't know what to think, something was so wrong, and it wasn't going away. Everything snowballed so big and so fast from seeing an eye doctor to seeing my physician... a neurologist... a tumor specialist.. and finally a MS specialist. And for most of it I felt like I was entirely alone. For most of it I had to keep it all a secret. Even though the events happened fast, the answers couldn't come soon enough. This whirlwind of doctors and tests has been the longest 9 months of agony and wondering what the hell is wrong with me. Why cant these doctors give me a straight answer? Do they have any idea what the hell they are doing? Is it MS? Is it a tumor? Is it nothing and I'm just loosing my mind? Am I just going to wake up blind one day? Is my Boyfriend going to leave me? For a good 5 months of feeling like I was going crazy, the only person who knew about this would hold my face and tell me he's not going anywhere. But suddenly and without warning, in the dawn of a new day, in a gust of wind, in a blink of an eye, he disappeared. One day, he was no longer the person I knew the night before and for the last two and a half years. Coincidentally, he left me about 2 weeks after my spinal tap, and about a week after we signed a condo lease together. He clammed up. He wouldn't tell me why. He just disappeared. (I should note, he had a demon too. There was another real hard fact that was a factor in our future together. Though, I was still willing. I don't think what happened was because of this. I think it was because of his own demon that he ran away. ...I was so incredibly disappointed. Lost, confused, and hurt, and so incredibly disappointed.) So, the future I was currently working on was ripped out from under me. And I still had this thing. This thing.... Four months later and it's now August. The end of Summer. It was only determined just last Thursday, after viewing the third MRI of my brain, that my largest lesion definitely isn't a tumor. But, it also means that we are now going to whole heartedly determine this is in fact MS. However, Since I've only had one official "attack" we are currently calling it the "first stage" of right before MS - Demylinating Disease. Well then... a sort of final answer, finally. "Luckily" enough,(hah), my doctor feels like I should start treatment right away rather than just sit around waiting for my second official attack. I've been doing a lot of reading. With recent studies showing Interferons do not slow or stop progression, I don't really feel like I have much of a choice other than Copaxone. I've read about the one oral drug that is available right now, but I'm still debating it since it's so new. I'd like to keep reading about it and hearing how other people are reacting to it, but i guess the best choice right now would be Copaxone. How exciting. And by that I mean I'm not excited at all, but then again I don't believe anyone ever is. If anyone has advice on what medicine you like the best, what medicine you recommend that I try, please please go ahead and tell me. I'm open to all advice and stories of experience. And aside from traditional medicine, I'm open to all other forms of "therapy" that anyone might recommend. ...I still need to call my nurse to set up my medicine. I was supposed to call her Monday. Maybe, subconsciously, I'm just putting it off. In short-- my main attack has been my vision. For the last 9 months, every day, I experience double vision, mostly noticeable at night. Some days are better than others, and some days are much worse than others. Other visual problems I experience are flashes of light, flashes of black, and temporary half curtain blindness that will only last in the flicker of a second. I completely lost my sight one day, months ago, just for a couple seconds, only to quickly recover it. My adrenaline shot through the roof. My greatest fear is loosing my sight again, just suddenly and without warning. I try to ignore the visual disturbances as often as i can, but they never completely go away, and on some days when its bad I feel like I'm going crazy. On the bright side, these problems, while scary, haven't been truly interfering with my daily actives since (aside from the double vision) they only come and go in flashes. Even with the double vision (most noticeable at night), I'm still capable of doing everything necessary, it can just be freaky. My sight can also be occasionally blurrier on some days that others. Other symptoms- *Pins and needles that can happen anywhere (mostly hands or feet) and can last for a day at a time, *aching shooting pains that often go through my fingers, sometimes up my thigh, sometimes in my ribs *electrical shooting pains through my feet (individually) that happen at random, at ANY TIME, whether I'm taking a shower, driving...it has even woken me up from the middle of sleep *twitching of muscles. Like one day my right bicep might randomly twitch all day. Then the another day my right shoulder blade with randomly twitch all day. *Also, I choke on what I'm eating almost every time i eat something, i read that swallowing problems are a symptom so i figured maybe it also has to do with it. that or I'm just so silly i don't know how to eat properly at age 25. I'm sure I'm forgetting other things. I also have chronic tailbone pain. I have no idea why. Of the 5 MRI's I had none were of my tail bone and I have no idea if it's related to this condition or a separate wonderful gift. When it flares up I become grouchy and mean because the pain can sometimes bring me to tears and last for days. Maybe its just a broken bone that never healed, who knows. Anyone else get tail bone pain? Like I said to begin, I know this has been one long run on sentence. I really look forward to any responses about similar symptoms, or just advice! To anyone who does want to sit down and read this whole thing, thanks for reading it! :)