How This Happened to Me...

The doctors diagnosed me officially with multiple sclerosis in 2005, but in the summer of 2002 I had my first scare with the disease. Turns out, they were probaby right with their initial diagnosis then and wrong when they told me I didn't have MS.

It actually started in December, 2001. I was wrapping Chrstmas presents and got a strange muscle pull in my back. I thought it would go away, so I simply treated it with rest and heat for a few days and suffered through the holidays.

In January, it was no better so I went to see a chiropractor. Shortly after that, things got weird. The chiropractor solved the back problem, but after about 3 weeks of treatment, I noticed that my right foot felt asleep all the time. So I went to see my genral practitioner.

Apparently, he was territorial or one of those doctors who thinks chiropractors are quacks, so his first advice was to stop seeing the chiropractor and to get new xrays of my back. I did.

Then, his office decided to terrify me. the called me at work to tell me I had a mass in my spine. No more information than that and no you can't see the doctor before tomorrow afternoon 'cause he's busy. He's busy?!! you just told me something is wrong with my spine and I can't see the doctor for more than 24 hours to tell me what it is because he's busy?!

Thankfully, my boss was an understanding woman and let me go home. I wet straight to the doctor's office. Turns out, he wasn't even in the office, but when you yell and cry enough, eventually a nurse feels sorry for you and reads your test reports. Turns out, I had made it my first 32 years of life wihtout anyone noticing that I had spina bifida occulta.

Spina bifida occurs in development in the womb when for whatever reasons, possibly a lack of folic acid, the spine does not form right. Occulta is the modifier to say, "Oh, it's not that bad." Generally, it means a minor abnormality with the spine. Mine was that three of my lumbar vertebrae don't close completely on the surface. the doctor said it could make it slightly easier for me to get a spinal cord injury but was nothing major to worry about.

And, I had a sixth lumbar vertebrae. Normal people have five. I have an extra one.

Oh, and that mass in my spine....well, apparently, they weren't sure what it was exactly, so it was off to the hospital to have an MRI of the spine.

A week of worries later, the MRI report showed that in one spot near the incomplete vertebrae, my blood vessels, mostly capillaries or just a little bigger had turned into a pile of wet spagetti instead of growing properly. Again, they assured me, no cause for alarm. But also, ne explanation for my foot numbness and by now the numbness had begun to spread towards my knee.

The answer was a referral to a back surgeon for evaluation. that took weeks to get and in the meantime, I tried to play tennis with friends. I was okay when moving to the eft, but when I had to run to the right, I would suffer instant muscle weakness and soetimes fall down. This did not make for a long game of tennis.

When i got in to see him, Dr. Mellion was a wonderful help. he explained my spinal abnormalities better than my regular doctor had and assured me that my spine was in as good condition as could be expected for someone my age. My age!!!! I was 32 years old, not exactly Grandma Moses and now, I'm falling apart? Give me a break!

But nothing to do with my spine explained what was happening to my foot, so on to the neurologist....in 6 weeks when he had an open appointment.