So…I’ve just been diagnosed with MS and am just trying to process everything and make sure I’m doing everything I should be doing at this stage…
For background info, last July I woke up with terrible vertigo and nausea, it lasted for two weeks and was not at all pleasant. They put me on a variety of anti-nausea tablets but nothing seemed to work, so it was just a case of waiting it out. After the vertigo subsided, I was experiencing numbness in my feet and left hand, and weird pins and needles sensations running up and down my legs, so I was refered for an mri. I had that in October and saw a neurologist in November - he said that there was some swelling in my brain (around my nerve clusters I think he said - not sure if that’s correct though, I was in shock!) and that he thought the two weeks of vertigo had been a CIS, and that he wanted an mri of my spine. I had that in January and finally got the results on Friday, and he said there was a lot of inflammation shown in the MRI so he was diagnosing MS. It was a bit of a shock and I was by myself, so I know I spaced out a bit, but it was a very short appointment and pretty much all he said was that he’d refer me to a specialist to talk about treatments and also to a nurse, and that they would get in touch by letter. They then took about a gallon of blood (at least that’s what it felt like!) for other tests (no idea what - he didn’t say) and that was that. I’ve been trying to process it all over the weekend and have been reading up on the different treatment options, but I’m not even sure what kind of MS I have - I guess the vertigo was a relapse, but I still experience tingling sensations and numbess in my left hand on and off, I’m extermely sesitive to heat and I’m struggling with managing tiredness/fatigue and working full-time - I guess it’s RRMS…? I suppose I’ll get lots more info when I meet with the specialist, but I’ve no idea how long that’ll take…
I have a CIC policy that I’m hoping I can claim on so I’m going to look into that (not sure what evidence I’ll need or if the condition is progressed enough yet, though), I’ve also been reading up on the different DMDs so I’ll have some context for any discussions/decisions about those (although I’m not sure if they recomment drugs to everyone?) and I’ve told my husband, parents and two very close friends. I’m also meeting with work to go through what support they can offer (I’ve been struggling with how hot the office is and also with fatigue - at least I know why now…) so what I wanted to ask was: in the experience of people who have been through this before, is there anything else I should do at this stage? Any advice/suggestions would be greatly received! Thank you.