I am a very strong willed, independent women who has become afflicted with this disease. My positive mindset and my desire to fight this monster is what pushes me through each day that is filled with fatigue, fogginess, and pain. MS may have taken away my ability to do some of the things I used to do, but my reaction is to just find something different that I can do now. I used to be a type A personality, working as an executive assistant who was always on the go. Now I am an artist who has found that she can create things she never thought she could. What a strange lesson life has to teach...

I first started having trouble with fatigue and brain fog after coming down with a really bad flu in 1994 while in college that I just never got over. I struggled for years after that going from doctor to doctor complaining of these symptoms. I got to the point where all I would do was work and sleep, barely getting through a full work day. I wouldn't even remember driving home most of the time because I was on auto-pilot. I even had trouble forming words and sentences, getting so frustrated that I just wouldn't bother talking anymore. My doctors at the time never suggested ordering an MRI and I didn't know enough at the time to even ask for one... until I finally had an attack of optic neuritis in 2005. They found that I a few old lesions along with some new ones that caused the optic neuritis and was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS. Since my diagnosis, my condition has been fairly mild but severe enough to put me on disability. My main symptoms are severe fatigue, brain fog, and really bad nerve pain in my legs. I have learned to restructure my life so that I can be stress free yet productive and have since taken up jewelry making & sculpting which also allows me to be creative. My goal is to stay productive through out all of the MS symptoms and medication side effects. I have no doubt that with my positive mindset and my will to fight this monster called MS, I will continue to find new ways to live my life to the fullest. =)