Tiny Warrior

My name is Penny. I was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA in the 70’s. My story begins in 2002 when I was living in the Reading, Pa area.


I was having some vision issues and the month was December. I was getting married that July. I made an appointment to see my doctor, who told me I had an ocular tumor and that it was unlikely removable. He then sent me to another doctor. I was going back and forth for months until I finally found it was not a tumor. It was something called sixth nerve Palsy I had to wear a prism on the inside of my glasses it took over a year but it got better. A couple of years go by and now it’s 2006. Once again something was wrong. I couldn’t feel my left leg it was numb and tingling. I thought I slept on a nerve so I brushed it off until one day I couldn’t walk at all. My leg felt like jello. I fell on the floor. I went to see the doctor who promptly sent me to the emergency room. I was put in hospital and ran all sorts of tests. By this time, I was paralyzed from the waist down. Three MRIs later and a spinal tap, I found out it was Transverse Myleitis, which I then found out could be a precursor of, you guessed it, MS. My doctor said 'I’m not saying you’re going to get MS anytime soon, but I did have to tell you'. Well, almost to the day I was told it’s full-blown MS, specifically RRMS. Fast forward after being in the hospital over 100 times, I have had countless MRIs, too many that I glow in the dark, 2 spinal taps, 3 plasma transfers, and have taken what seems like all the MS modifying drugs. I took countless rounds of steroids. I took Mavenclad, which I thought was the best medicine to date. I got weight loss surgery from being too heavy from the steroids. I’ve lost over 130 lbs and I wouldn’t change if for the world. Now it’s progressive MS with smoldering lesions. That’s where I stand as we speak. Thank you for listening. God Bless.