PatientsLikeMe ™

Well as you all know I am very new here and thank you all for the very nice welcome.  You all have been wonderful in helping me with my questions.  For those of you that dont want to read a very long sad story then this post is not for you, I just need to tell my story and vent since I havent been able to find the power to tell my parents I need to get it off of my chest.  So here goes I am 25 almost 26 years old.  I joined the Navy when I was barley 18.  I was a almost normal teenager.  My family doctor diagnosed me with migraines at a very young age I think I was like 8 or 9.  I had my good days and my bad days and went on with life, if only I knew what I had in store I would have curled up in a corner somewhere.  About 6 months after I joined the Navy I was in school and my left lung collaped (which is completely unrealted to MS).  It was right before my first Thanksgiving on my own.  I was so scared I had never heard of someones lung collaping before.  Then about a month later it happened again only I was at my parents house on leave for Christmas.  Luckly their was an Air Force hospital really close to my parents house.  Only I didnt go to the hospital the minute I knew it went down I waited unitil 2 days after Christmas to go.  In my mind I didnt want to ruin Christmas.  I just killed New Years.  But of course my parents understood. and that was the end of that problem.  I got to my first duty station, with the Marines at Parris Island.  I loved being a Corpsman with the Marines I had so much fun.  Untill I got into a car accident.  The accident wasnt weird it was what caused it that was really weird.  I was driving and all of a sudden I got really dizzy and it was like I was watching a TV that was on its side.  And next thing I knew I was in a ditch.  I was still dizzy but my vision was fine.  I got out and saw that my car was fine and I drove straight to my firends house down the street and they took me to the ER.  They said I was fine and it was just vertigo.  Give it a few days and it would pass, and it did so I thought nothing of it.  Only it kept on happening but I just brushed it off its just vertigo and it will pass, what I didnt know was it was a combination of vertigo and ON.  As was explained today by my doctor.  This never stopped only got worse to this day.  I was ok for a few years then my last few months in the Navy something even odder happened I woke up and had double vision.  I went to the doctor and he coudnt figue out what was wrong.  See they dont teach Navy doctors to look for MS in a young healthy active duty person.  He just wrote me off and I was better in a day or two and that was the end of that.  I got out of the NAvy and I noticed something odd again I would be extremly tired and every part of my body would hurt for like a week at a time.  I worked a very busy ER at the time so I just wrote it off as stress and being overworked this went on for a while then I got smart and ask my doctor who told me it was just stress and my up comming wedding.  I bought it and just delt with it.  My soon to be husband broke up (thank God I didnt marry that POS) and I moved back home to Ohio thats when everything started to fall apart.  I was having problem breathing so my mom told me to go see her pulminologist so I did and he told me that since my father had asthma then so did I and that was my problem.  I said ok and he put me on some medicine and I thought I was fine only I found myself in the ER a lot for asthma attacks (or so me and everyone else though).  The albuterol inhalier just wasnt working.  I told my doctor and he said you need steroids I said ok.  I was on and off the steroid for about 2 years when I was on them I was fine off not so much.  Then I ask my family doctor for something to help with my tightness and stiffness he gave me Zanaflex.  Which amazingly helped with my breathing.  I was doing ok I decided to try not taking the Zanaflex (that was a dumb idea).  I woke up one Sunday morning this past Febuary and coudnt breath it was like a bear was crushing my lungs.  I knew I didnt have time to call and wait for my mother to get me to the ER, so I drove down the street to the hospital (thak god it is only five minutes from my house).  I wlked in the ER and fell over they threw me on a bed and started working on me.  Now I have been to this ER before so they knew my history since I could hardly talk.  So of course they think asthma.  They give me eppi and albuterol and steroids and nothing happends finaly after about an hour of hell they intabate me.  But my doctors were stumped as to why my pressures on the vent were low tehy should have been really high since I was having an asthma attack.  They got me off the vent about 24 hours later and they were loading me up on ativan.  I just took it since it seemed to make my tightness get better.  Then I got out of the hospital and about 3 days later it happenes again.  I got intabated again.  Same course of action on the vent for 24 hours and the pressures were not right load me up on ativan.  Send me home.  So I went to see my family doctor who has known me since I was a very small child.  And he looked at me and said we need to get a cardiac cath done just to make sure it wasnt my heart then I want an MRI and spinal tap.  I looked at him and said what for.  He said its nothing I just was not make sure its not MS I said what how does this took like MS.  He said well in someways it does but in others not so much I just need to be sure.  I got the heart cath done and besides a slight murmur I was fine.  Then I went to the doctor after the MRI and spinal tap and he said Sam I have some good news and some bad news I thought for sure it was something with my heart, man was I wrong.  He said you know when you were in the hospital and really sick I said yes what about it well it wasnt a asthma attack it was something some people refer to as and MS hug.  At that point I broke down in tears.  I knew what he was saying.  Then he told me that all my symptoms over the years were MS.  He said that there were 4 active lessions and told me I have to see a Neurologist.  This has all happened so fast I know I am lucky that I had a really good doctor that figured it out.  But I still have one major problem I have to tell my parents.  And I just cant find a good way to do it.  I dont want them to hurt with me.  I know they want grandkids and I wont be able to do that.  I dont want to break their hearts.  They just think I hve asthma.  And in the begining went her first told me that it might be MS I didnt want to tell them that and then it not be right and have them all freaked out when they didnt need to be.  Well thats it that my story.  Thanks for letting me vent.  I think it helped.  And if anyone has any ideas on how to break my parents hearts gently let me know.  Thanks again. 
Samantha