Face to face with MS

How it all began...

 I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2003. It was also the first time I had heard of it. A numbing sensation, on only the left side of my body, as if an invisible line was dividing my body equally into right and left, led me to get an MRI of the brain done. The doctor diagnosed it as MS and tried to caution me about going anywhere alone. I had visited the hospital alone for the MRI and later for the report, too. The numbness went away after a few days and that was that. It didn't bother me after that and so, I didn't bother about it.. As an afterthought, that was a big mistake right there.

Skip to 2012, I started having some trouble walking… my right leg would suddenly stiffen for a few seconds and come back to normal. This would happen a couple of times a day. A few fingers of my right hand too wouldn't curl to break a piece of roti. A visit to a neurologist was required. Fast. He ordered an MRI of the brain and spine. It confirmed what was diagnosed 9 years ago - Multiple Sclerosis. This was in November. By January next year, my walking was getting slightly more difficult and I was experiencing bladder control issues. Long distance travel was a challenge. Hadn't he said problems with walking would start in about 10-12 years?? So, what was happening here? It seemed as if my brain was paying heed to only the symptoms and not the associated timelines.

May 2014. It had been 8 years since I had stopped working in an office environment. In that time, my daughter was born and I did not miss going to work. But I started feeling a need to do something more outside of the home environment. I love the English language in all its glorious forms. I  enjoy reading different styles of writing and absolutely love wordplay. The witty and clever ways of usage, meanings, spellings of words fascinate me. I have always wanted to do something..anything that involved the language.  So I decided to pursue my love for the English language and contacted an internatinal English certification oeganisation to gain a certification to teach English here and overseas. I paid for the course over the weekend and was to register for it, after having other documents in place, the following week. Monday morning was a strange one. I woke up and found that I couldn't see properly, everything looked grey and a little hazy.. like there was a film in front of my eyes and I was seeing through it! The vision in my left eye had a distinct grey spot. A quick visit to the ophthalmologist showed no reason for that vision impairment. He recommended a specialist who confirmed it to be a result of, what else but multiple sclerosis..It was a condition called Optic Neuritis which is inflammation of the optic nerve and can be an early sign of MS. (Homoeopathic medication has helped reduce the obstruction to a very large extent and is now only a tiny spot.)

That put paid to all plans of doing that English course. But, in all this, there was a silver lining! Because I had only paid them and not actually registered my name, the organisation had to give back my money. That I got back the amount, less by Rs. 5000.00 which they retained as  ‘administrative expenses’; that the money was returned only after one and a half years of regular follow up, is another story.

By now, I realised that the MS was making its presence felt clearly and was here to stay.

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