MS Comic: Hidden Symptoms

By Brooke Pelczynski

1 min read

What people see on the outside rarely matches how someone with MS feels on the inside. Brooke's latest comic shows how people view her out at a party or on the train compared to how she actually feels that day.

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mstony Member
Very good illustrations. Sounds about right.
lifeisnotfair Member
OMG! This is ME.... I have been trying to figure out if this is a thing that I'm supposed to be experiencing or if I'm sick.. I have been having symptoms of a UTI and have been checked a couple of times, a couple of weeks apart but there are no actual signs of an infection...yet. I have had an infection in the past, when I've had these same symptoms and I've even been running a temperature, but it seems to take a while for it to show up on tests. My MS symptoms have flared so much and I'm hoping that this is not something that I'm supposed to be experiencing just because I have progressed. I have been burning all over and it gets worse as the day wears on. My body seems to be under attack and it burns and feels like it's vibrating, too. I'm hoping to start Ocrevus soon and praying that it will help with the exacerbations and keep me from progressing so fast. Are you taking an MS therapy?
1. Therry Neilsen Moderator & Contributor
 I"m sorry I didn't see this comment at the time you posted it. You just described the exact way my MS presented itself, with urgency frequency and difficulty voiding. Took me THREE YEARS to get referred to a neurologist who diagnosed MS after a Lumbar puncture presented with 18% protein in it, a sure sign of a demyelinating disease. I hope in the intervening year you have gotten answers. Yes, after twenty years with the disease, most of long before there were any disease modifying treatments, I finally started on Copaxone twenty years ago, and I'm still on it, still cheerfully injecting myself with it. It has made a huge difference to my disease course. I'm still sick, it's not a cure, but oh boy, has it helped in a hundred ways. I hope you have found a diagnosis and started on a DMT and that you are doing well. Take care. And ocrevus is supposed to be terrific!
Therry Neilsen Moderator & Contributor
Oh, Brooke, this one hit me like a ton of bricks. You have such a way of putting your reality into pictures, it's a real gift. Thank you for sharing this comic with us -- it feels even more personal that some of your other brilliant comics. And I'm sorry you're on fire.
wandaholt Member
So true. My outside look seldom matches what is going on inside as your drawings portray well.