Let me just start this one off with saying that really, I’m fine. It’s been a weird medical month for me but things are starting to shape up. I know it scares other people when I go through things like this, but honestly it kind of becomes comical to me. It’s hard not to just laugh when so many things go wrong. It’s become kind of therapeutic to me to think through and write out my medical and mental hardships. I feel that a lot of this blog has been mostly for myself, but if you’d like a view into whats been going on in my brain this past month, you’ve got it.
The first episode in my month long medical saga started a few weeks ago. I had just come back from a regular eye appointment and was eating lunch while checking my email. Out of no where I lost complete vision in both my eyes. I surprisingly wasn't too bothered by this at first, living with MS I think you just get used to weird things happening. I waited a few minutes until I realized I should probably try to figure out whats going on and stop sitting in my personal darkness. I was home alone and wasn’t sure what to do. Luckily I was sitting next to my phone, I was unable to enter my password in or see my contacts to call anyone I knew so I asked Siri to call 911.
It was the first time I ever called 911 and I was weirdly nervous about it, like I would be bothering them or something. But as I’m sure most people would expect they weren't as annoyed with me as I was somehow oddly thinking. Being in the hospital was a little freaky, just being poked, prodded and scanned for hours made me feel like an inanimate object. My vision eventually slowly came back and I was released. I went home a little shaken up but I felt back to normal by the end of the night. They got in contact with my neurologist and had eluded that it was most likely caused by stress. When they spoke to him he also informed them that in my last MRI they found three new lesions on my brain. I was instantly pissed by hearing this, because had I not ended up in the hospital I would probably have never been informed of my MRI results. I’m going to save my rant on my frustrations with communication in medical care for another day, I could go on for hours about that one.
The next day I was making rice on the stove, the water was boiling and I was a little dizzy and distracted thinking about the day before. In my state of mindlessness I somehow dropped the entire pot of boiling water on my right foot, slipped on the tile and hit my head on the counter. I guess I just hadn't gotten enough of being in the hospital yet and headed back over. Turns out my head was fine, the burn on my foot was painful but not too serious. It’s starting to heal now and I look like I have the wrinkled foot of a grandma. To top it off two days after that I was told I had a viral infection and had to spend a few more days laying on the couch. But like I said, at this point it was really just funny. At this point as well, things with my boyfriend had ended in the midst of all my medical adventures. It definitely added some stress to everything and my body never reacts well to stress. I have been pretty open in these posts but I am going to keep my breakup to myself.
So back to my MRI results. After a long appointment with my neurologist we decided that the medication I have been taking hasn't been working, which was hard to hear. Since I was diagnosed at 18 this has been the third medication I have taken because they haven't been working for me. It’s scary to not know or have control over whats happening in your brain, its also scary not being able to find a medication that works yet. It was particularly frustrating hearing this news because at the time of the appointment I felt perfectly healthy. Its just weird to be able to feel fine but know your body is going through a hard time.
On the bright side of having to switch medications though, I am going to start taking a pill. Every MS medication I have taken so far as been an injection. It’s become something that I am just used to and don’t complain about, but the idea of not having to inject myself every night sounds pretty awesome. Sometimes I’ll get home late exhausted and hate not being able to just crash but instead having to go through the process of injecting myself. It will be nice to be able to just take a pill and go to bed. I’m going to be starting the pill later this week. On Friday I turn 26, which means I will be kicked off my parents health insurance. At which point I will start my insurance plan through my job. We all agreed that it made more sense to wait until the plans had been changed to go through the process of getting the new medication. I am pretty nervous about starting the new meds, I’m sure I’ll write something talking about it more shortly after starting it.
Well that’s pretty much a run down of how August went for me, I have pretty high hopes for September.
