It was this time of year 23 years ago when I had my first symptoms of MS, Optical Neuritus.
I remember it really well, going to the doctors and they were thinking it was just some viral thing. Pain in my left eye and blurred vision. It gradually got worse, so I eventually went to the hospital. That started the loads of different tests over several months to try to find the problem.
I remember going up to Hull for Xmas, by that time my vision in my left eye was totally black! I remember it was freezing fog all the way up to Hull, so driving with only one eye was extremely challenging and a little bit scary.
We made it up there though, had a good family Xmas and got back home to Ipswich without any problems.
I remember when my eye was still quite bad and nobody knew what the problem was, being told by the optometrist that it was possible I would not get my vision back in my left eye. Luckily after some steroid treatment my vision came back to almost as it was before it started.
It wasn’t until the August of the following year, after the multitude of tests, that I was given the diagnosis of it being MS,
For the first 16 or 17 years my MS didn’t have a major effect on my life, it’s only when it changed from RRMS to Secondary Progressive MS that it started having a large impact on my life.
It is what it is! Yes it’s slowly getting worse, and yes I know that I can’t do anything to change that.
But I’ve had a fantastic life so far. And I will continue to live my life under my conditions, not the way MS expects me to be! I have the most supportive network of family and friends anyone could ever wish for. Most of all I have the most loving, hard working, understanding wife in the world ever! Who means absolutely everything to me, and is my main reason for existing and fighting this challenge with every fibre in my body. Which I will carry on doing for as long as there is breath in my body!
Anyway, enough for today. Keep fighting the fight and never give up.
Rob
My Life and My MS 