It was September 27, 2010 when I was diagnosed with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. I was 29 years old and I’ll never forget that day. In hindsight, I’d experienced symptoms for years (dizziness, clumsiness, migraines, depression, anxiety, fatigue) but just labeled them as “growing pains.” After six months of over two dozen visits to the ER, repeated testing (including a lumbar puncture which left me with the worse spinal headache of my life), I finally had a name to this MonSter inside of me.
It seemed like overnight that I had gone from doing P90x routines to falling to the floor as I got out of bed. I had first dismissed the numbness on my left side and dizziness to a pinched nerve, but when I went partially blind in my left eye, had an anxiety attack and nearly passed out while driving, I became concerned. When I had a seizure on my living room couch, my feelings skyrocketed to sheer terror.