The Time of my Diagnosis

I was 23 and teaching in a school ,when suddenly I felt dizzy. I was at the black board trying to control the students when it happened. I immediately got someone to take over the class and went to the administrative office to tell them I had to go home and rest. Despite the fact that I explained to them I was dizzy, they were not very pleased that I had to leave because they did not have anybody to take over the class. I was upset and said that was not my problem and left. I went home and laid down in bed and for a few days went back and forth to doctors till I ended up in a neurologists office. He scheduled me for an MRI.

My dizziness subsided and I took the MRI. I asked the technician if everything looked OK and he said he couldn't respond and that I would have to wait to see the doctor. When I went to the car, my husband got a phone call from my family and I felt something was wrong, like he was holding something back. I then got concerned and when he got in the car I asked him and he said everything was fine and that we should wait till we see the doctor.

When we finally went to see the doctor, he explained to me matter of fact that I have Multiple Sclerosis. He explained to me what it was and that it was not severe, explaining what I had was an MS relapse and that they will come and go through the years. He also explained to me that some people have very little relapses in their lifetime. I felt hopeful and kind of relieved because I realized that the excessive tiredness and fatigue that I had felt over the last few years was not normal, but was actually from a neurological disease. I also realized I had a relapse a few months before when I was on vacation visiting my family. One of my eyes became a bit blurry and I went to an eye doctor and he said it was from the change of weather. I went with that and it went away in a few days.

The doctor asked me to do a few more neurological tests over the next few days. I remember those next few days were not pleasant, I was curious about MS. There is a lesson to be learned here. I was strong. I never said "why me." I felt an incredible amount of support from my family and that always helps. My husband bought me my first book about MS and I read it in two days. After that, I started to read as many books as I could on the subject.

Now that I think about it, MS came as a relief. I was not happy with my teaching job, the children in the classes were misbehaved and hard to control and the school expected a teacher to control 3o some children in a class with different level backgrounds in English and the pressure was all on the teacher. I totally disagreed with it and the stress took its toll on me. Most teachers had to yell to control the students and it was just exhausting. I immediately quit my job and stayed at home and read a lot about MS. I changed my diet to a low fat diet and just took it easy.