My Diagnosis Story

I think the best start for this blog is to give some context around my symptoms and how I was diagnosed with MS.

I have a history of migraines. I don't get many of them, but when I do they are debilitating.  My migraines come with intense pain, nausea, numb fingers and, more recently, visual disturbances.  I had seen my GP a few times about the migraines but nothing serious was done.  When the visual disturbances started I looked it up and read about ocular migraines. The symptoms fit the bill and they only lasted around 30 minutes so I really didn't worry about them.

Fast forward to April 24th, 2013.  My best friend gave birth to her second child and I went to visit them. It was an emotional night and I didn't get that much sleep.  The next day I went for a walk and started to notice my vision was blurring.  I chalked this up to a migraine and finished my day at work.  I took the next day off work because the vision issues were persisting. I spent the entire weekend in bed, with a patch over my eye because of the dizziness I got if both eyes were open.  I then made an appointment to see my optometrist. I really feared at this point that it was an issue with my retina.  The optometrist had a look and said the eye was fine.

I decided to see my GP to see if it was a migraine and if I could get a magic pill to make it all better. Apparently no such pill exists.  He was uncomfortable with the fact that it had now been 6 days of visual issues.  I was sent for a CT scan and had an emergency appointment with an ophthalmologist. Both of these appointments lead to the conclusion that it was a persistent ocular migraine.  I went on vacation and learned to live with the vision issues.

I made another appointment with my GP for June 3rd as my eye was not getting better and I wasn't really satisfied with the 'migraine' diagnosis.  I was put on the list for an MRI. I went to get my MRI on June 6th. I met with my GP on June 10th and he said that there was some evidence that it could be MS. I was sent to the Neurologist the next day and he confirmed the diagnosis that I did have Multiple Sclerosis. That was June 11th, 2013.

If the end seems a bit abrupt, that's because it was. A lot of lead time, a flurry of activity and a life changing diagnosis. I have to say that I think that was a relatively short amount of time to get a diagnosis. 47 days from the vision impairment to the diagnosis with 6 Dr's visits, a blood test, a CT scan and an MRI.

My next appointment isn't until September 11th when I suppose we will look at treatment options. Hopefully I've made a decision on how I want to proceed by then.

If you've made it this far in the post, I'm impressed. Give yourself a gold star! :)
Thanks for reading,

~MS Diagnosed