Multiple Sclerosis - How I Knew I Had MS

Hello my dear friends and welcome, my name is  Vickie Hadge and this is Even So It Is Well.   Today I wanted to talk a little bit about my  initial symptoms and the signs that I might   have had MS and when I really knew that I had MS.  I'm on a number of groups and forums with other MS   patients and quite frequently there are people  who post something like this "No diagnosis yet,   but I have x y and z symptoms." "Not diagnosed  but going to the doctor because I have this,   this, and this. And there are a  lot of people with many different   diseases and autoimmune disorders who are  wondering what's wrong with me what is going on   some get diagnosed really quickly you get a lesion  in a really important part of your brain or your   spine and it's quite acute so you know immediately  something is wrong but for others it's kind of a   slow go and it could take months or years to get  the answers that you need you know i'll give you   a bit of history first when i was a child i was  diagnosed with scoliosis when i was in second   grade and i wore a back brace for nine years a  lot of times i would just dismiss symptoms that   may have been related to my autoimmune disease but  i chalked it up to i don't know scoliosis pinched   nerves back problems i overdid it it's amazing  how we can go into denial about our symptoms   but my first real discernable symptoms  were in 2006 and it came on over a weekend   i was out with friends and i was having  some difficulty walking my right foot   seemed to be weak and i was tripping and stumbling  a bit and i went to the doctor on a monday and   really was not concerned you know i have a little  bit of weakness no big deal and the doctor's   like yeah you have some weakness let's get some  blood work see see if there's anything going on   and before the blood work results could come back  in it got dramatically worse i had classic foot   drop i didn't know it then i didn't know what foot  drop was but still in denial like oh my foot's not   working right it must be a nerve problem they can  fix it and i ended up going back to the doctor and   he sent me for mris and he looked at my mris and  he sent me to see a neurosurgeon and i still still   wasn't convinced that there was something  wrong with me even though i was going to see   a neurosurgeon he looked at my scans and he did  an exam and he said yeah we need to admit you   into the hospital and i said oh okay when and  yeah right now you need to go over to admitting   and i'll call them and let let them know that  you're on the way and that kind of scared me a lot   so i was in the hospital for the  weekend getting lots of tests done   and including a lumbar puncture and lots of blood  work and multiple mris and they started me on   steroids they said they saw something that looked  like a lesion in my neck so they wanted to tamp   down any inflammation as quickly as they could  because my walking was continuing to deteriorate   and at the end of the weekend the doctor  came in and said good news it's not a tumor   which i was really relieved and but still you  know i was thinking whatever it is they can fix   and he introduced me to my new neurologist  and the neurologist wasn't convinced   that it was ms but he suspected ms so that that  was pretty scary i think that was the beginning   of my acknowledgement that there was something  something pretty wrong and i was really scared   i didn't know what ms was the the steroids did  their magic my foot got much better quickly and   i started taking care of myself you know even  though i didn't have a diagnosis and i left   with instructions to follow up with my doctor my  new neurologist my new neurologist that was crazy   i started taking better care of myself i  wanted to get the strength back in my legs   so i started walking more in doing yoga and some  strength training and you know like most people   when you have an acute health event i started  looking at diet and stress reduction and kind   of taking responsibility for my health you know  it wasn't my fault that i got sick but it was my   responsibility to look after my body and i saw my  neurologist once every six months multiple mris   and nothing really came of it so he said yeah  go ahead live your life call me if you have   any other symptoms okay good good i don't want  to have a mess this is great news thanks doc   bye and i went happily long for about 10  years until i started having more symptoms   and at that time it was very subtle i didn't have  a true relapse in the sense of the word i woke up   one morning and there was acute symptoms they came  on kind of subtly i had some sensation loss and   some numbness and when i exercised i had some  tingling and some pain on the bottom of my foot   and i pretty much ignored it in the back of my  head was that little voice going vicky you have ms   and i really didn't want to be sick so i said  you know what i'm just going to exercise more   and i'm going to eat better i'm going to  meditate this is i'm going to meditate this away   yeah no it didn't work so i did go back to see  the neurologist i had to see a new one because   my old one had moved on to a different specialty  and she didn't really see anything she did some   mris and some nerve conduction studies and she's  like i really don't see anything let's repeat   them in six months and see if we see a difference  waited the six months the symptoms didn't go away   they may have gotten a little worse and  in the back of my mind vicky you have ms   yeah i didn't want to believe it so i went  back to her in six months and she didn't   see anything new on the new set of mris she  just kind of shrugged her shoulders at me   and i said well what do i do now and she said well  you could go see an orthopedic group and i went to   see an orthopedic group and saw some doctors there  and lots of x-rays lots of tests and yeah we don't   see anything wrong either okay next steps well  you could go see a spinal surgeon okay so i went   to see a spinal surgeon and every once in a while  you get a doctor that you just don't click with   has that ever happened to you you get to a doctor  and they they're just so overconfident that makes   you go hmm yeah put me give me a comment below  if this has ever happened to you and he wanted   to do surgery on my neck he thought that there was  issues with my discs and he wanted to fuse them   and that time the little voice in the back of my  head screamed yeah no vicky don't don't do that   so i'm really glad i listened and decided to go  a completely different route on my own and went   to see a physiatrist and a physiatrist is a doctor  that treats pain and problems in non-surgical ways   and they're really interesting doctors and  they know a lot so i suggest that you check   out physiatrist if you're looking for answers and  i went to see him and his physician's assistant   saw me first and he's like yeah i don't  think you need that surgery looks like a few   and he brought in the physiatrist and the  physiatrist said yeah 100 don't get that   surgery and still in the back of my head vicky  you have ms uh so the physiatrist said i would   like you to go see a friend of mine who's at the  hospital for special care and he's a neurologist   so i went to see him and i had a really extensive  nerve conduction study done this neurologist said   yeah it's not your extremities there's definitely  something wrong with your central nervous system   and i think at that point is when yeah i knew  that little voice was right i knew that i had ms   but i didn't have a diagnosis yet so in my  brain i was preparing myself for the diagnosis   and he sent me off to see a ms neurologist at our  local ms center when i finally got that diagnosis   of ms there was a little bit of relief like oh  thank goodness i can name what is wrong with me   i'm not going crazy these symptoms are not all in  my head and they're not all just because of stress   they're actually real real symptoms but  i knew vicky you have ms and i knew this   part of me was like oh finally now i know  what's wrong i can do something about it and   it wasn't that it wasn't devastating it was i  was really scared but there was also that sense   of relief finally i know what's wrong so what  did i do um i got all the recommendations of   medications from the neurologist and i started  doing research i know a lot of people say   don't google it don't google ms it's too  scary i'm not one of those people i think   information is power and i don't think that you  should google the worst of what could happen   to you but i think looking for information on  treatment and looking for success stories and   looking for others who are living well  with their diagnosis can be very empowering   so i encourage you to do that it is a disease  that you can live well with i do a combination of   diet i eat a whole food plant-based diet and i  feed my body the most nutrient dense healthy foods   that i can i exercise regularly i do a combination  of cardio and a little bit of weights and i make   sure that i move my body regularly and this is  something that's a little bit new for me um i   was trying to get exercise on a regular basis but  i was doing it in these these bursts of exercise   instead of moving regularly throughout the day  and i use my fitbit it reminds me to get up   and walk and i've been trying to take a thousand  steps an hour and it's made a huge difference in   not only my muscle tone but it's made a huge  difference in my fatigue and i think i'm going to   do a video soon all about fatigue because that's  really been bothering me a lot lately so that has   been improving so exercise is the second thing i  do uh the third thing i do is make sure i get good   sleep when we sleep that is when our brains and  our central nervous systems repair and clean house   they clean all the garbage out of our systems and  it's it's imperative that we could get good sleep   so i've been working on improving my sleep hygiene  and making sure i get enough good rest every   night and the fourth thing is kindness and stress  reduction and i like calling it kindness because a   stress reduction seems seems like it's a chore oh  i must reduce my stress and that can be stressful   so i label it kindness being kind to myself and  also being kind to others helping out others is   amazingly therapeutic when you're feeling bad and  you're having a tough time if you go out and help   others and you do some volunteer work it's amazing  how good that is for you and your stress levels so   kindness i've said this before treat yourself with  exquisite care treat yourself like you would treat   someone you love if someone you loved was ill you  would do anything for them to help them get better   so do that for yourself as well and the last  thing that i do is i do take medications i think   there's a good balance between eastern and western  medical philosophies to keep us well and i do take   a disease modifying treatment to help keep my ms  at bay and i also will take medications when my   symptoms flare to help control my symptoms there's  no reason that we need to suffer with our symptoms   we need to take a look at the things that  we can do to help it you know diet eat the   the foods that are going to keep our body healthy  and keep inflammation low and exercise keep our   bodies strong and keep those those feel good  hormones going sleep get really good rest be   kind to yourself i meditate regularly and this is  a big part of my overall health and also i take   my medications when needed um you know these all  of these things help me to live well with my ms   so back to the original question when did i  know that i had ms i would say i probably knew   that i had ms back in 2006. i knew that i had  it and it actually was a good thing it was the   catalyst for me to start taking better care of  myself and i changed my started changing my diet   started to change my diet and i started to  exercise more and take better care of myself   and i went 10 years really without  any new symptoms so that was fantastic   and it was good proof to me that if i take really  good care of my body it will respond in kind and   you know the second indicator was when i started  to get increased symptoms 10 years later i knew i   knew i knew there was something wrong and i think  that's that's key we need to listen to our bodies   if we are feeling off or something's not right  we need to pay attention and like i said i saw   like five different doctors that year before i got  my diagnosis and i encourage you to listen to your   body if there's something happening that's out of  the normal for you keep advocating for yourself   keep asking okay what doctor should i see next  if you're not getting satisfactory answers ask   for referrals ask for second opinions you don't  need to suffer keep advocating for yourself so   that's it for today's video thank you so much  for joining me i really appreciate it if you like   videos like this and about ms and content about  living well with ms do me a favor and hit the   like button under the video and also if you have  not subscribed yet go ahead and hit the subscribe   button and the notification bell so you don't miss  any upcoming videos and also if you'd like updates   from me see the link below to sign up for my  newsletter until next time my dear friends be well

Channel: Multiple Sclerosis? Even So, It Is Well

Views: 407,130

Keywords: MS, Multiple sclerosis, MS Diagnosis, multiple sclerosis diagnosis, ms symptoms, multiple sclerosis symptoms, my ms story, ms story, multiple sclerosis story, ms medication, wfpb, whole food plant based, ms exercise, ms diet, ms and meditation, ms fatigue, vickie hadge, even so it is well, multiple sclerosis, ms diagnosis

Id: zwgvcgwDT8I

Length: 17min 12sec (1032 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 20 2022