"I’ve always been a very independent person. Full of life, fun, and loving being with my family. Loving to work and help my husband provide for our family. We have three wonderful children, which mean the world to us. Seeing a smile on their faces and my husband’s face always made me happy. I worked full-time but always made time for my family. I was still young only 32 at the time and never expected anything from anybody. I’ve always been the type of person that if I wanted something done I would do it myself. It was just easier that way and I never had to worry about someone else doing things wrong. I think it was probably in December of 2013 when I started having problems at work. I could still handle my job but my feet hurt uncontrollably bad. I just figured I was wearing the wrong kind of shoes seems how I was walking on concrete all day. So I went to the store with my husband and mom to buy a new pair of shoes. To my surprise it did not work, but I still didn’t stress over it much. I just soaked my feet in Epson salt and hot water every evening when I got home from work. It seemed to help ease the pain for a little while. But new symptoms then arose, I started having problems with my balance. Still I was convinced it was my feet causing the problems my husband wanted me to go to the doctor. I scheduled an appointment with my family doctor to help ease my husband’s mind but mine as well. When the doctor came in he seen there was something going on so he scheduled me an appointment with a foot doctor. She seemed like a very good specialist at the time, she had scheduled a nerve test to be done in March. But every time my appointment grew closer the hospital would call and reschedule my appointment and at the same time I was getting new symptoms at this point by the day. I got to the point where I had to hold onto the walls at work just to walk or I would fall, as a result my boss would send me home till I seen my family doctor. I was making daily trips basically to my doctor’s office by this time and no-one seem to know what was going on. It wasn’t until my husband went to the doctor with me in May of 2014 that we were able to start getting some answers. The nurse I had that day was very rude and told me that I was getting older and pain was part of getting older. I knew this was a different kind of pain, I just didn’t know how to describe it. My husband stepped in and told her he wanted to see the doctor immediately because there was something wrong. To my surprise the doctor agreed with my husband and set me up with another specialist but this time it was a neurologist in Cincinnati. The same day that my doctor set my appointment up with the neurologist, he also made me go on family medical leave of absence. I was in a car accident that same day which ironically caused my license to be suspended due to a medical condition. Basically I was stuck at home with no-one to talk to because my husband worked full-time and my children was in school. It was something that I had never done before and I really didn’t know how to handle it. Thankfully the neurologist got me in fairly quickly and was seen by him just two weeks after my doctor contacted him. That day was a day I will never forget. It was June 20, 2014, my mom took off work to take me. I was in his office a total of five minutes when he looked at me and said he already knew what was wrong with me he just needed the tests to prove it. I never bothered to look at my papers to see what he was looking for I just handed my papers to my mom and walked to the car. She looked at me and said, “Do you realize what he is checking you for?” I obviously said no but would never be prepared to hear what she said to me next. She told me that he was checking me for multiple sclerosis. My heart just dropped, I had felt like my life had been unfairly taken away. The only thing I could think to do is call my husband at work and tell him. He was very supportive and very understanding and tried to make me feel better. At this point I was trying to look at things in a more positive way, like maybe the MRI’s and bloodwork would prove that this was a wrong diagnosis. I had six MRI’s and lab work done a week later and I was praying for good news. All of that was shattered when my neurologist said he needed to see me in his office immediately. So my niece Krissy, took me back to his office and he told me I needed to have a spinal tap. I had my spinal tap done on July 3, 2014 and I thought the worst of it had been over with. But once again my neurologist wanted me back in his office, only this time when we arrived he sat me down, and gave me the devastating news that I have multiple sclerosis. He said that I had 4mm lesions on my brain and plaque on my back, and that it was also progressing. For the time being he had put me on five days of home IV therapy treatments followed by ten days of prednisone to help wean me off of the IV steroids. Despite the medicine helping my body, the damage had already been done and I had fallen into a deep depression. I felt as if I had taken my children’s lives away from them and my husband deserved someone better than a crippled up woman. Like I was a burden that everyone had to put their lives on hold for me and that was not fair for them. I found myself falling farther and farther into this depression and could not get myself out. It was like I was on the outside of my body looking in. No-one knows how it feels to have someone look at you and just say you’re feeling sorry for yourself. I do not see it this way as I still feel like this to this day. My whole life has changed and every day is like a new adventure because I still do not know what to expect. My neurologist’s first approach to fighting my MS was prescribing me Avonex. I was never excited for this treatment mainly because it was a shot given once weekly which my husband did for me. It made me sick for three to four days and caused me to lose my appetite. While all of this was going on I was also fighting for disability. The disability office made me see a Forensic Psychiatrist who had diagnosed me with chronic depression along with anxiety problems. To help with my anxiety my doctor had put me on Valiums twice daily and Robaxin three times daily to help with spasms in my hands. Despite all of their efforts nothing has made me the happy free-spirited person I once was. That person left a long time ago. She was my past and I’m still trying to figure out my future. Everything with the Avonex had seem to be working for a while, but my appetite had declined tremendously. I’ve basically become a vegetarian meaning I only craved and ate fruits and vegetables. This is still the same to this very day. Rapid weight loss had become my next symptom, something they still to this day have not been able to help with. No matter what I put into my body or how much I still continuously lose weight. I’ve lost approximately 100 pounds since I was first seen by my doctor almost two years ago now. I try every day to figure out a way to stay at a healthy weight. In March of 2014 I started noticing differences in my body once again. Going against my best judgement I just shrugged it off and hoped that my problems would go away. It was virtually impossible though as there was this burning sensation going on in the small of my back. That was probably one of the worst mistakes I had ever made, and didn’t realize just how bad at the time. I had another disability appointment coming again, so I was just trying to make it through that first and then get my next set of MRI’s done for my neurologist. This time my disability appointment was with a medical doctor, because they said I didn’t have enough evidence to support that I was disabled. Even though I was in a wheelchair and could not travel far from home without having a MS attacks. This disability doctor was my saving grace besides the fact that God has always watched over me. He was baffled at the fact that I was not already approved for disability considering I could not feel anything from the waist down. That was the best appointments I had with a doctor in a long time, now it was time for my next set of MRI’s, which I was dreading. There was just something inside me telling me something was wrong and I just couldn’t shake it. So my husband and my mom took me to the hospital and I got all of my MRI’s done. For a second, my mind was set at ease, but I knew there was something they were going to find I just didn’t know what it was. My neurologist called us a couple of days later and had us come in. I went in by myself this time. I just felt like it was time to just open up and tell him everything which is what I should’ve done to begin with. I told him it started with a burning sensation in my back, and then my legs started feeling heavy again. I was unable to walk upstairs or go downstairs, all the while I was just in tears because I knew he knew something showed up on my MRI’s. To help calm me down he congratulated me on my weight loss even though he wanted me to gain instead of lose. Then he asked me what I disliked about Avonex, and me being sarcastic, I told him it was because it was a shot and I hated needles. Then he paused and looked at me and said the reason he didn’t like it was because it wasn’t helping me the way that he wanted it to. I immediately broke down in tears again, but he reassured me that I had already known this because I said it myself. He then told me that I had two more active lesions this time on my back. For me hearing him say those words was like taking a giant step back. I had to go back on five days of IV therapy treatments followed by the prednisone once again. Then he told me to come back to him and talk to him about our next approach to combating my MS. So I did, I went back on September 2015, I was convinced that I wanted to try this new medicine that was in pill form called Tecfidera. He agreed to let me try this medicine and wrote the prescription for it. In all of my bad luck during this time I had received a letter from the disability office saying that I had been approved. It was something I could finally be happy about, but the same day I found out that my insurance did not want to approve my new medicine, which was another setback. Having a great neurologist has always been a good thing for me, he fought long and hard and finally after two months he got the medicine approved. So far the medicine has worked wonders for me, I can feel my hands again and on most days I can walk. It may not be like a normal person, but just for me to be able to walk to the end of the driveway and back is a huge accomplishment for me. With all of the tests I’ve had over the course of two years you would think everything would be okay with me. Unfortunately, not all of us have a fairy tale ending. Once my MS medicine was in full effect, I noticed the pain in my feet and legs had intensified. So I scheduled an appointment with my family doctor, and had my husband accompany me. To my surprise we got a glimpse into how bad my depression really was and just how bad the pain is. Even though people say I look fine, the best way I can describe it is that it’s an invisible pain and no-one really knows just how bad it is unless you live with it every day. Dr. Parrett fortunately could see this as he takes care of MS patients as well and had increased my pain medicine because I apparently became immuned to my old medicine. It’s a very common thing to happen as I have come to learn. The increased pain medicine has helped with my legs, but my depression has become worse and is becoming harder to handle. I’m convinced that no amount of medicine will help with my depression. Kevin has always been my rock to lean on or my shoulder to cry on, and always catch me when I fall. He puts me before everything else and I honestly don’t know where I would be without him. My children now 14, 16, and 17 never complain, and will do anything to help. They have had to deal with way more than most children have and more than any child should. I’m truly grateful for my children and my husband. As Kevin says, this is a learning experience for us all we just have to take it one day at a time. I do not know how he handles everything he does, but I do know that there are a lot of people that take to many things for granted. You only get one life, never take it for granted, because you never when everything will change in your life forever. Me overcoming depression seems to be my biggest challenge, as far as my MS, I believe that God would never give me more than what I could handle. I’m a strong person with a very supportive family that loves me. I never seen myself as the one asking for help, I always liked being the one helping the others. I’m just thankful that my family has always been there for me, when it could have been so much easier to walk away. I’ve lost most of my friends since I was diagnosed, I guess you really find out who your real friends are when something like this happens. I have come to look at life in a different way and have come up with my own thought about how I want to live my life. If you have made today better than yesterday than you’ve made a difference in your life. My life has changed dramatically over the past two years, so I am always looking for new ways to adjust to it. The life I had two years ago is gone, and I will never get it back, but that doesn’t mean my life is over. It just means I have a new life and have to learn how to adapt to the things that I can do and learn my limitations, and I’m okay with that now. It took me a very long time to accept the fact that I have MS. It was just something I never wanted to live with. You have so many questions that go through your head. Will I be in a wheelchair? Am I going to die from this disease? Will I get to see my children graduate or get married? How will this affect my family? None of these questions I can answer for you, but I can tell you the better your attitude is with this disease the better life you will have. My biggest combatant with this disease is the depression that goes with it. I spend many days crying and asked why me, instead of being thankful that I’m still here and can help others that are fighting this disease. Most days I don’t even feel like getting out of bed but I force myself to because I have children and a husband that need me as much as I need them. They are my reasons to keep on fighting. I can remember the days when I would ask Kevin what I did that was so bad in my life to get this, and he was constantly reminding me that I didn’t do anything. These things just happen, no-one knows why, but maybe someday I will be among the ones that say I SURVIVED MS>I’ve always been a very independent person. Full of life, fun, and loving being with my family. Loving to work and help my husband provide for our family. We have three wonderful children, which mean the world to us. Seeing a smile on their faces and my husband’s face always made me happy. I worked full-time but always made time for my family. I was still young only 32 at the time and never expected anything from anybody. I’ve always been the type of person that if I wanted something done I would do it myself. It was just easier that way and I never had to worry about someone else doing things wrong. I think it was probably in December of 2013 when I started having problems at work. I could still handle my job but my feet hurt uncontrollably bad. I just figured I was wearing the wrong kind of shoes seems how I was walking on concrete all day. So I went to the store with my husband and mom to buy a new pair of shoes. To my surprise it did not work, but I still didn’t stress over it much. I just soaked my feet in Epson salt and hot water every evening when I got home from work. It seemed to help ease the pain for a little while. But new symptoms then arose, I started having problems with my balance. Still I was convinced it was my feet causing the problems my husband wanted me to go to the doctor. I scheduled an appointment with my family doctor to help ease my husband’s mind but mine as well. When the doctor came in he seen there was something going on so he scheduled me an appointment with a foot doctor. She seemed like a very good specialist at the time, she had scheduled a nerve test to be done in March. But every time my appointment grew closer the hospital would call and reschedule my appointment and at the same time I was getting new symptoms at this point by the day. I got to the point where I had to hold onto the walls at work just to walk or I would fall, as a result my boss would send me home till I seen my family doctor. I was making daily trips basically to my doctor’s office by this time and no-one seem to know what was going on. It wasn’t until my husband went to the doctor with me in May of 2014 that we were able to start getting some answers. The nurse I had that day was very rude and told me that I was getting older and pain was part of getting older. I knew this was a different kind of pain, I just didn’t know how to describe it. My husband stepped in and told her he wanted to see the doctor immediately because there was something wrong. To my surprise the doctor agreed with my husband and set me up with another specialist but this time it was a neurologist in Cincinnati. The same day that my doctor set my appointment up with the neurologist, he also made me go on family medical leave of absence. I was in a car accident that same day which ironically caused my license to be suspended due to a medical condition. Basically I was stuck at home with no-one to talk to because my husband worked full-time and my children was in school. It was something that I had never done before and I really didn’t know how to handle it. Thankfully the neurologist got me in fairly quickly and was seen by him just two weeks after my doctor contacted him. That day was a day I will never forget. It was June 20, 2014, my mom took off work to take me. I was in his office a total of five minutes when he looked at me and said he already knew what was wrong with me he just needed the tests to prove it. I never bothered to look at my papers to see what he was looking for I just handed my papers to my mom and walked to the car. She looked at me and said, “Do you realize what he is checking you for?” I obviously said no but would never be prepared to hear what she said to me next. She told me that he was checking me for multiple sclerosis. My heart just dropped, I had felt like my life had been unfairly taken away. The only thing I could think to do is call my husband at work and tell him. He was very supportive and very understanding and tried to make me feel better. At this point I was trying to look at things in a more positive way, like maybe the MRI’s and bloodwork would prove that this was a wrong diagnosis. I had six MRI’s and lab work done a week later and I was praying for good news. All of that was shattered when my neurologist said he needed to see me in his office immediately. So my niece Krissy, took me back to his office and he told me I needed to have a spinal tap. I had my spinal tap done on July 3, 2014 and I thought the worst of it had been over with. But once again my neurologist wanted me back in his office, only this time when we arrived he sat me down, and gave me the devastating news that I have multiple sclerosis. He said that I had 4mm lesions on my brain and plaque on my back, and that it was also progressing. For the time being he had put me on five days of home IV therapy treatments followed by ten days of prednisone to help wean me off of the IV steroids. Despite the medicine helping my body, the damage had already been done and I had fallen into a deep depression. I felt as if I had taken my children’s lives away from them and my husband deserved someone better than a crippled up woman. Like I was a burden that everyone had to put their lives on hold for me and that was not fair for them. I found myself falling farther and farther into this depression and could not get myself out. It was like I was on the outside of my body looking in. No-one knows how it feels to have someone look at you and just say you’re feeling sorry for yourself. I do not see it this way as I still feel like this to this day. My whole life has changed and every day is like a new adventure because I still do not know what to expect. My neurologist’s first approach to fighting my MS was prescribing me Avonex. I was never excited for this treatment mainly because it was a shot given once weekly which my husband did for me. It made me sick for three to four days and caused me to lose my appetite. While all of this was going on I was also fighting for disability. The disability office made me see a Forensic Psychiatrist who had diagnosed me with chronic depression along with anxiety problems. To help with my anxiety my doctor had put me on Valiums twice daily and Robaxin three times daily to help with spasms in my hands. Despite all of their efforts nothing has made me the happy free-spirited person I once was. That person left a long time ago. She was my past and I’m still trying to figure out my future. Everything with the Avonex had seem to be working for a while, but my appetite had declined tremendously. I’ve basically become a vegetarian meaning I only craved and ate fruits and vegetables. This is still the same to this very day. Rapid weight loss had become my next symptom, something they still to this day have not been able to help with. No matter what I put into my body or how much I still continuously lose weight. I’ve lost approximately 100 pounds since I was first seen by my doctor almost two years ago now. I try every day to figure out a way to stay at a healthy weight. In March of 2014 I started noticing differences in my body once again. Going against my best judgement I just shrugged it off and hoped that my problems would go away. It was virtually impossible though as there was this burning sensation going on in the small of my back. That was probably one of the worst mistakes I had ever made, and didn’t realize just how bad at the time. I had another disability appointment coming again, so I was just trying to make it through that first and then get my next set of MRI’s done for my neurologist. This time my disability appointment was with a medical doctor, because they said I didn’t have enough evidence to support that I was disabled. Even though I was in a wheelchair and could not travel far from home without having a MS attacks. This disability doctor was my saving grace besides the fact that God has always watched over me. He was baffled at the fact that I was not already approved for disability considering I could not feel anything from the waist down. That was the best appointments I had with a doctor in a long time, now it was time for my next set of MRI’s, which I was dreading. There was just something inside me telling me something was wrong and I just couldn’t shake it. So my husband and my mom took me to the hospital and I got all of my MRI’s done. For a second, my mind was set at ease, but I knew there was something they were going to find I just didn’t know what it was. My neurologist called us a couple of days later and had us come in. I went in by myself this time. I just felt like it was time to just open up and tell him everything which is what I should’ve done to begin with. I told him it started with a burning sensation in my back, and then my legs started feeling heavy again. I was unable to walk upstairs or go downstairs, all the while I was just in tears because I knew he knew something showed up on my MRI’s. To help calm me down he congratulated me on my weight loss even though he wanted me to gain instead of lose. Then he asked me what I disliked about Avonex, and me being sarcastic, I told him it was because it was a shot and I hated needles. Then he paused and looked at me and said the reason he didn’t like it was because it wasn’t helping me the way that he wanted it to. I immediately broke down in tears again, but he reassured me that I had already known this because I said it myself. He then told me that I had two more active lesions this time on my back. For me hearing him say those words was like taking a giant step back. I had to go back on five days of IV therapy treatments followed by the prednisone once again. Then he told me to come back to him and talk to him about our next approach to combating my MS. So I did, I went back on September 2015, I was convinced that I wanted to try this new medicine that was in pill form called Tecfidera. He agreed to let me try this medicine and wrote the prescription for it. In all of my bad luck during this time I had received a letter from the disability office saying that I had been approved. It was something I could finally be happy about, but the same day I found out that my insurance did not want to approve my new medicine, which was another setback. Having a great neurologist has always been a good thing for me, he fought long and hard and finally after two months he got the medicine approved. So far the medicine has worked wonders for me, I can feel my hands again and on most days I can walk. It may not be like a normal person, but just for me to be able to walk to the end of the driveway and back is a huge accomplishment for me. With all of the tests I’ve had over the course of two years you would think everything would be okay with me. Unfortunately, not all of us have a fairy tale ending. Once my MS medicine was in full effect, I noticed the pain in my feet and legs had intensified. So I scheduled an appointment with my family doctor, and had my husband accompany me. To my surprise we got a glimpse into how bad my depression really was and just how bad the pain is. Even though people say I look fine, the best way I can describe it is that it’s an invisible pain and no-one really knows just how bad it is unless you live with it every day. Dr. Parrett fortunately could see this as he takes care of MS patients as well and had increased my pain medicine because I apparently became immuned to my old medicine. It’s a very common thing to happen as I have come to learn. The increased pain medicine has helped with my legs, but my depression has become worse and is becoming harder to handle. I’m convinced that no amount of medicine will help with my depression. Kevin has always been my rock to lean on or my shoulder to cry on, and always catch me when I fall. He puts me before everything else and I honestly don’t know where I would be without him. My children now 12, 13, and 15 never complain, and will do anything to help. They have had to deal with way more than most children have and more than any child should. I’m truly grateful for my children and my husband. As Kevin says, this is a learning experience for us all we just have to take it one day at a time. I do not know how he handles everything he does, but I do know that there are a lot of people that take to many things for granted. You only get one life, never take it for granted, because you never when everything will change in your life forever. Me overcoming depression seems to be my biggest challenge, as far as my MS, I believe that God would never give me more than what I could handle. I’m a strong person with a very supportive family that loves me. I never seen myself as the one asking for help, I always liked being the one helping the others. I’m just thankful that my family has always been there for me, when it could have been so much easier to walk away. I’ve lost most of my friends since I was diagnosed, I guess you really find out who your real friends are when something like this happens. I have come to look at life in a different way and have come up with my own thought about how I want to live my life. If you have made today better than yesterday than you’ve made a difference in your life. My life has changed dramatically over the past two years, so I am always looking for new ways to adjust to it. The life I had two years ago is gone, and I will never get it back, but that doesn’t mean my life is over. It just means I have a new life and have to learn how to adapt to the things that I can do and learn my limitations, and I’m okay with that now. It took me a very long time to accept the fact that I have MS. It was just something I never wanted to live with. You have so many questions that go through your head. Will I be in a wheelchair? Am I going to die from this disease? Will I get to see my children graduate or get married? How will this affect my family? None of these questions I can answer for you, but I can tell you the better your attitude is with this disease the better life you will have. My biggest combatant with this disease is the depression that goes with it. I spend many days crying and asked why me, instead of being thankful that I’m still here and can help others that are fighting this disease. Most days I don’t even feel like getting out of bed but I force myself to because I have children and a husband that need me as much as I need them. They are my reasons to keep on fighting. I can remember the days when I would ask Kevin what I did that was so bad in my life to get this, and he was constantly reminding me that I didn’t do anything. These things just happen, no-one knows why, but maybe someday I will be among the ones that say I SURVIVED MS>"