The Start

Over 7 years ago, I bumped my head pretty badly....coincidentally at the same time I started experiencing numbness in my legs. Originally I shook this off as a cool party trick and went about my day. 

After a few weeks of numbness I finally mentioned something to my Primary Care doctor who sent me on a journey through doctors and tests. 

(This picture below was taken right before I got a call from the doctor letting me know they found something on my scans.. I was on my way to a girls trip at the beach telling them all about the MRI I just had.) 

I was originally diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Transverse Myelitis and started to mentally prepare myself for what could happen down the road.

In August I went in for my yearly MRI expecting the same news that I have received in the past (no news) but a new lesion had appeared on my scans. 

So instead of having one lesion I now had multiple.. get it? Multiple Sclerosis.

The next thing I knew we were talking treatment plans and next steps. 

What is MS? In the simplest terms: MS is an autoimmune disease where your body works too hard. My immune system goes above and beyond its normal duties and starts to attack things like my nervous system- ya know the things you need. (I always was an over achiever) 

This disease is tricky and can present itself in many different forms- vision issues, balance and coordination, numbness, difficultly walking-- the list goes on. 

I fall in the high functioning very early stages of MS---to the naked eye I am a normal functioning 30 year old.

Throughout the past 7 years I have dedicated myself to getting healthy and strong. I wanted to make sure that I was in the best shape if things were to take a turn for the worst. 

Shortly after this diagnosis I had to put things on the back burner as I was less than a month away from my wedding day. 

So much was happening and there was little time to be sad about things that I could not control. The day I went to the doctor, I took off from work, gave myself 24 hours to feel bad for myself and then kicked everything into high gear as it was time to kick some butt.