I have officially been diagnosed with RRMS a couple of days ago it has been a long lonely road 18 months of not knowing or should I say being in denial for all that time. I New I had it and even prepared myself for the diagnosis but still felt like I had been punched in the face. Feeling deflated
Hi Sharon
Even when you ‘know’ the diagnosis is coming, it can still hit you like a brick in the face. It’s not that it’s news to you,or even a shock, but more that once you know for certain, you can never now ‘unknow’ that you have MS.
It is a bugger of a disease. And one for which you have my sympathy. I’ve been living with it for a long time now and it still sometimes has the power to sort of surprise me. Kind of like ‘oh shit, it’s MS, I’m stuck with it now!’
You know, everyone on this forum is incredibly brave. Being undiagnosed for as long as it takes to get the diagnosis is worse for all of you than it was for me I think. The reason is that you have access to an unlimited supply of information about MS and every other possibility. You dread it more than I think I did.
And once diagnosed, you have more information bombarding you which conspires to scare you stupid about what happens next.
One good thing about living in the Internet age is that you also live in the disease modifying drug age. You should now be able to start taking a DMD. You also have access to MS nurses and you have access to all of us on the MSS Fora.
Hopefully you will soon start a decent DMD and thence have few and far between relapses and subsequent disability.
Sue
Sharon,
for me although the diagnosis was like a brick to the face, I was happier that I was past the “not knowing” stage . I could give this crappy condition a name, I could learn about it and start to develop the various coping strategies. As and when new symptoms appeared it was still scary but weirdly slightly less so than if I had no idea what was going on.
I have also learned a lot about myself and how to prioritise the important stuff.
wishing you all the best & good luck
Mick