I Thought...

By the time it happened a half-dozen times, I realized it wasn't normal.

Half my body went numb

The first time I thought my leg had just fallen asleep and didn't want to wake up. The second time I thought it was just taking me longer than it normally did for my entire body to wake up from a nap. The third time, it plain scared me when half my body went numb.

An MRI of my brain

When the day for a trip to my primary care doctor arrived, I was ready to go, complete with self-diagnosis in mind, ready to tell him what was wrong. When I left his office with an order for an MRI of my brain I didn't give it much thought, I just went, had it done and went home, almost forgetting about the entire appointment. I didn't hear back from his office so I assumed the MRI had been normal and whatever had been causing the symptoms I had been having had resolved on its own.

I went to see a neurologist

It was hard not to be just a little curious, though. Just to relieve my curiosity I called his office one day. I was connected to a nurse who asked me to hold on for what seemed like an eternity. It seems she had misplaced my file that was right on top of her desk. "He wants you to see a neurologist," was her reply when she came back to the phone. With no idea why, I went to see this neurologist. After he examined me and reviewed my records, he looked at me matter-of-factly and said, "I think you have MS."

I didn't know much about MS

This was in 2007. I didn't know much about MS. I knew enough to know I didn't want it but not enough to really know how I should feel. Not that it mattered what I wanted or how I felt. I got it anyway. I left his office and told him he was wrong after I sat in his office and had a good cry.