I had managed to spend most of my life fairly healthy, at least after I started school.  That was until I was a senior in high school.  Half way through the year, I started having bowel problems.  To make a long and disgusting story short, I was diagnosed with IBS.  To be on the safe side, they also did a colonoscopy, where they found a couple precancerous polyps.  I dealt with that, and still do, having another done about every 3-5 years.

            I dealt with stress and depression, but so do most college students.  I took a year off before starting work on my Masters just to give my mind a break.  In April of 2005, about a week after being accepted to graduate school, started to notice the vision in my right eye was fuzzy.  Went on for a few days before I decided to go to an Ophthalmologist.  He said it looked like optic neuritis, ordered an MRI, and sent me to a Neurologist.  He mentioned MS, but didn’t think much of it.  Well, the Neurologist took one look at the MRI films (and so did I, noting the cross-sections with white spots all-over them) and I was in the hospital within an hour.

            After 2 or 3 days of tests and steroids, the doc come in, told me I had MS and could go home.  When he felt to talk to my parents, I lost it.  As much as I hate hospitals, I wanted to stay so they could fix me.  Sadly, that wasn’t my last breakdown.  I’ve lost hope many times.  My vision completely returned, and I’ve been fine until this latest relapse.  This time, I lost the feeling on the bottom of my right foot, felt like my right hand was burnt, and my vision got fuzzy again.  But, I recovered.

            I have managed to find hope again.  I start medicine #3 is September, won’t even have to give this one to myself since it is IV.  I still have IBS, but the polyps they found last time were not precancerous.  I think it might have been the first sign of my MS, considering how long it would have taken to develop as many plaques as I have.  What I have is also the most common bowel problem in people with MS.  But, the polyps aren’t, and it was just by chance that they looked and found them.  This leads me to the most disturbing question of all: “Is MS the reason they found them?”  If they hadn’t checked, I could have cancer now and not even know it.  If that is the case, then maybe MS actually saved my life.  This is not easy to come to terms with, but I’m trying.