It’s been six weeks since I first experienced my symptoms…a time frame which we often simply take for granted. But, not this time. Time has slipped into another dimension, moving swiftly and uncontrollably, but paradoxically, also terribly slow throughout each day allowing our minds plenty of time to contemplate our new life which instantly changed forever.
This is a journal of our life with multiple sclerosis…a new life we are just beginning to face.
The 13th of July was a warm day and I was happy to get back into the swing of developing our business after returning from a much-needed two week vacation. I decided to go for a nice long jog – something I often do when I need to organize my thoughts. On this day I thought about some new posting ideas for our blog, all of the projects I needed to complete to finish our new company website, working on updating our cooking with pumpkins book, developing our chocolate business, then it happened as I started my descent toward home. My right knee and hip simply stopped working…or I should say, stopped paying attention to my brain’s instructions and did what they wanted to. It was quite strange really. My legs had complete feeling, but they were rebellious and ignored my brain’s commands. It was an odd ten seconds.
I stopped briefly, knowing I felt something I had never felt before. But it was easy to come up with reasons for this behavior; perhaps I simply did not stretch my legs adequately and something became blocked. I waited five minutes and continued with my jog, but much to my growing concern the sensation in my leg returned. I walked the rest of the way home and tried to ignore this interruption to my workout.
Later that same evening the vertigo started, but the explanation was also simple to explain; an inner ear infection could cause these abnormal feelings and I was having some issues with a plugged ear. I went to bed thinking everything would return to normal the following day.
On the following day everything was anything but normal. The vertigo continued to rise up inside of me with waves that tossed my balance around every half hour or so, like I was suddenly struggling on a boat in rough waters. The feeling only lasted several seconds, but it was annoying…and I began to notice this vertigo feeling was always precluded with that distant feeling inside my right knee and hip that startled me during the previous day’s jog. I began to worry more about these evolving symptoms and their possible connections when I finally decided it was time to see my house doctor for a check-up. I made the appointment for the following day, but my symptoms were not ready to leave me alone on this day. My right shoulder and arm began to act in a similar way as my now rebellious right leg. Suddenly typing words on the key board was difficult or writing words down on a piece of paper. My brain was sending the signal, but the hand was not moving with its normal reactive pace. I worried that night in bed.
My first doctor visit didn’t bring a lot of news. I described my symptoms and my doctor checked my reflexes, ears, eyes and my blood pressure. It was my blood pressure which captured his attention, because it was noticeably high – something around 160/100. This was very unusual for me and I felt my body filling with more anxiety. There was no clear explanation for the other symptoms, and I did not believe the doctor’s assessment with my blood pressure issue. Nonetheless, the doctor wanted me to return in one month to monitor by blood pressure for 24 hours. I couldn’t wait that long, so I went and purchased my own device and began to regularly take my blood pressure for several days. I was right…my blood pressure was completely normal…and more chilling – my symptoms had not left me and they were showing no signs of easing. I made a second doctor appointment.
The second appointment was with a different doctor, one who replaced my house doctor while he was away on vacation. I instantly felt comfortable with the new doctor and described in detail my situation. He listened. I went through a quite an extensive check of my reflexes, balance and other sensory checks, but he could not find any signs of trouble. He also took some blood to look for other areas of infection which could have caused my symptoms. The results, which came the following day, proved negative and suddenly I was being told I should make an appointment with a neurologist.
1 comments: