Original Post 6.27.2017
Soooooo….the appointment with the doctor that would become my lifeline to sanity came quickly. He sent me downstairs to the imaging office for a full set of MRIs. He wanted the brain, cervical spine, and T-Spine, both with and without contrast. That was an interesting procedure. It is one thing having your head and neck in an MRI machine for say 10 minutes for both with and without contrast. It is a Totally Different matter being in there for approximately an hour. Starting with your brain, moving to your neck, and then moving fully into the machine for your spine……then do it all again once they shoot you up with dye.
UGGH……Please before you get one of these Loooooong MRIs…go pee. Laying on your back for an extended period of time tends to make you want to pee. You can’t cross your legs while you are in there either. 😉 Yet, the worst part is that you cannot move. Really, CANNOT MOVE for about an hour. No scratching your nose, no sneezing, no clearing your throat, no moving your head….etc. etc.
Your butt or I should say your tailbone (if you are skinny-ish) pushes against the table, in the same position, for what seems like eternity. After a while it starts to ache. NO FUN. I’m lucky too since I am not claustrophobic. I actually find the very loud banging of the machine as it does it’s thing, relaxing.
There is a problem there too. I tend to fall asleep. Yeah, that is a no no too. I guess people twitch in their sleep quite a bit. I’ve gotten the ..tap tap tap on the microphone “Ahem, Ms. Morrison, you need to stay awake please. No napping.”
So, moving on. I go back upstairs with my newly developed very large MRI scans. There were only a few pages, big pages, but it seemed like there should be waaaaay more with as long as the MRI took. Since it was a rush job, the radiologist just sent up the interesting ones first.
Wow……The doc takes time to look over the pictures then comes into the room. He says that just by looking at my scans, it is very probable that I have Multiple Sclerosis. He then says, no, I am diagnosing you with MS. We may do a spinal tap later to confirm it, but you have it.
He picks up the first set of pictures and points me to my Cervical region where there is what looks like a golf ball in the middle of my neck. Lesions on my spinal cord…… Neat-o. Then he brings out the star of the show. There is my brain….my poor little brain… kinda gray with a squiggly surface; but, there are these white spots……Many Many Many white spots, scattered around my brain. Not just in one spot, but everywhere. It looked like a painter took his brush full of white paint, pulled the bristles back with one hand, and slowly let them go so little splatters of white paint were flung everywhere. Also, my Ventricles were surrounded by lots of white area.
Then doc then told me that I had the ventricles of a 70 year old. Wow…. I was only 28 years old. I was also told that by the look of my brain, I had had MS since I was probably in my early 20’s, or possibly in my teens….and thinking back….I can remember a few time periods where I was experiencing weird stuff that I now know can be MS symptoms. So I am guessing at about 14 or 15 was when it started.
Anyway, the doctor said that I needed to start treatment right away. See my MS started with my legs being affected, not my eyes. In fact I have never had issues with my vision. With the legs being affected first, the concern was that I would have a less favorable prognosis. He then told me that if I didn’t start treatment right away, that I would be in a wheelchair by the time I was 43.
