Does anyone have Multiple Sclerosis? Personal experience only please.?
What were your specific symptoms? Did they all have a very negative effect on your daily life? How many "attacks" have you had? What is an attack vs just the normal symptoms? Also, I have done plenty of research, so I don’t need generalized information. I am looking for personal experience here.
I have been diagnosed with MS for 7 years and have had 5 confirmed attacks, but more likely it is 7 attacks.
3 attacks were sensory disturbances (numbness, pins and needles, plus a bit of limb weakness). The first was numbness in exactly one half of my face, the second numbness from the waist down, but so faint that I only felt it when I was in the shower under the hot water, the third was as if I had a tight elastic band wrapped around my lower right arm, my arm was also weak and I kept dropping things. Apart from a bit of residual numbness in my face, all of the other symptoms have gone away again completely.
3 attacks were optic neuritis - of which two were mild and lasted just 48-72 hours and were not confirmed, although the neurologist and eye specialists I’ve seen all think it was optic neuritis. The last optic neuritis attack was more severe and for months I had almost no vision on my left eye. Now 8 months later, my eye-sight is almost back to normal.
1 attack showed up on the MRI as a damage in the language center of my brain, which explained why I suddenly "lose" words. Not being able to think of a word is not uncommon, even in healthy people, but the difference for me is that I lose it in all of the three languages I speak (which is unusual) and that it happens more often for me than for others. It’s not too disturbing, though.
An attack is a sudden occurrence of symptoms that wasn’t there previously. The symptoms caused by an attack will often fade away again over time. A normal symptom for me is fatigue. The fatigue is always there, but luckily I have only mild fatigue and as long as I don’t overdo it, then it doesn’t limit my everyday life. I am also less heat tolerant than I used to be.
