Getting Old

I have been having symptoms since age 23 and I am now almost 72. I had optic neuritis at age 23, 24 and 26. In between I was hospitalized for numbness and tingling at age 25. I was told I have arthritis in my whole spine from cervical to lumbar.

Over the years, I fell a lot and walked with a limp had more numbness and tingling. I was tired a lot and dizzy. My sister had been diagnosed with MS and I would tell different doctors. They would say you don't have that. After I fractured my patella I went to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. They read the same MRIs that they read in my hometown and they showed me the MS lesions. Hello. Finally a definitive diagnosis.

I was not upset with the diagnosis actually I was almost relieved. I knew it!! I got tired of being told by neurologists that I was just getting older and had to live with the aches and pains along with the weaknesses.

I guess that is why they call it the practice of medicine!!