Hello Everyone,
My name is Freda and I want to thank you for taking the time to read
my story. I'm not sure if I'm in the right place but if I'm not, I
hope I can be directed to where I would more appropriately belong.

About 2 1/2 years ago I went to my doctor complaining of overall
achiness. My elbows and knees were very sore. It felt like I had the
flu but without the fever/nausea/headache. I told my doctor I felt
very arthritic and my muscles ached just going up a flight of
stairs. I'm a teacher and had a hard time keeping my armed raised to
write on the chalk board. I was 38 at the time and wasn't taken
seriously. I think I got a shot of cortisone for the achiness in my
joints. I was back in shortly after that visit with pain in my left
hip. Again, it was dismissed as simply inflamation of the bursa due
to some sort of injury (which I don't recall) and was given another
shot for pain. The shots helped marginally and I went back several
times with the same complaints of achiness and now chronic pain in my
hip. I was referred to physical therapy for my hip. It helped
marginally I was prescribed celebrex and flexeril for pain but
neither helped much.

This has continued for at least two years. Two weeks ago I went
again to my doctor because of overall pain but particularly bad
achiness in my fingers. It felt like I had jammed all my fingers.
My hip was so bad that I was bed ridden the day before and missed
work. I was referred to an orthepedic surgeon for my hip (who took x-
rays and found nothing but did order an MRI) and my family doctor
finally ordered some blood work. Most of the results are back and
were negative for hepatitis, tb, hiv, lupus and some others I don't
know off hand. I have explained my symptoms to others (some in the
medical field) and the first question they ask is if I've had an MRI
to test for MS. I went back and asked my family doctor if she would
order me one and she referred me to a neurologist. Finally I feel
like I'm getting somewhere. I will call tomorrow for an
appointment.

I must admit I had to look up what MS was because I had no idea.
After researching it, I realize I have other symptoms that could be
related to MS but I just dismissed them as my own quirks.
These "quirks" are general clumsiness. I drop things often.
Sometimes my words come out slurred A few weeks ago I got up from my
computer chair and my ankle simply gave out on me and I fell. My
ankle didn't hurt afterwards so I don't think I stepped on it funny
or anything. It is as if I didn't have a foot if that makes any
sense. Again, I dismissed it as my clumsiness. Also a few weeks
ago, I was walking down my stairs and all of a sudden it felt like
there was a presence (I know, weird) on my right side. It took a
minute for me to figure out that I had temporarily (about 2 minutes)
lost vision in that eye. I quickly regained it. That scared me a
little but dismissed it. And last but not least, I feel exhausted,
my body hurts. I told someone I feel like the tin man and each day
my body is becoming rustier and rustier.

The slurred words, brief loss of vision, and falling while trying to
get up from my chair were not shared with my family doctor because I
really didn't think anything of them and felt they were isolated
incidents. Now I'm not sure.

Again, thanks for reading. Any thoughts or comments would be greatly
appreciated. Just putting my words down has made me feel a little
sense of solace. Thanks again and God bless you.

Freda