What happened next...

I slept for 2 hours that night.

I was prescribed a 3 day Solumedrol infusion, so I continued my treatments on Sunday. That was also the day that I had to tell my Grandparents that not only do I have MS, I'm moving out of state in 2 days to seek treatments

I also had to quit my job of 6 years. There were tears. Mine were building up in my eye patch. As much as I don't miss the work that I did, I miss my Anthony's family.

Chris was supposed to come home to visit on the next Thursday, but he was able to get a last minute flight change to fly me to Vegas on Tuesday. First Class! In an eyepatch! That my Mom and Grandma helped me bling out. I mean, if you are going to wear an eye patch, WEAR the damn patch. Don't let it wear you.

As you can tell, I'm injecting a lot of humour into this. I've never been one to sit around and say "Woe is me," and after the initial Saturday night frenzy I was able to do some more research and really learn about what MS is. I thought I only new one person who has MS, Patricia. If you work at Antwan's you know Patricia. She comes in in her big power chair, can barely hold her head up, cries a lot, spills wine, falls over in the ladies room and is always mumbling to herself. For about 12 hours, I thought this was my future.

But that's not true. Patricia is a worst case scenario. And I know now that I haven't been dealt a death sentence, I've been issued a disability sentence. But it can be really hard to deliniate between the two when you are the person being diagnosed. MS is a disease that affects every person differently. It's an autoimmune disease that can affect any part of your body. Turns out double vision ( Diplopia) is the most common attack that people who have MS can identify. After reading through the symptoms and talking to 4 different doctors so far, I know this wasn't my first attack. It's just the first one I recognized. It's also a disease that attacks twice as many woman as men and between the ages of 25-35. And four times as many people are diagnosed with it in the Pacific Northwest then anywhere else in the United States. So it turns out I am a perfect candidate. But don't be concerned blog readers, it isn't hereditary but it is genetic.

So I spent Sunday and Monday telling my closest friends why I am suddenly dissapearing. It was hard. Leslie Gay, you get the award for taking it the hardest. You are my oldest friend and I wanted to be able to tell you in person so much but that would have made it even worse. And my sister, who I haven't even spoken to in over a year, got a ticket and chewed out a cop for pulling her over when she got the news.

The big irony of all of this is that I have become so obsessed with my health over the last few months. I was really concerned with my weight and potential diabetes that I have completely changed my eating habits. It's been 5 months with NO fast food. 3 months weening myself off of processed food and I had been back in the gym for 6 weeks. I lost 34 lbs. for peets sake! I'm wearing a size 16 pant now. In fact, one of the errands I ran with my Mom that same morning was dropping off all my size 20/22 pants and clothes at the Goodwill. The doc prescribed me Prednisone and I cracked a joke about how I was going to have to buy my fat pants back :)  He looked unclear about how to react to that.

Oh and Meagan Stokke, I could never have packed without you. Thank you for being so well organized when I was a mess. We didn't forget anything. And I haven't worn a single pair of socks, it's been so nice.