So the inevitable happened, I had a relapse. I've been bragging about how my last relapse was in 2011 and that it wasn't anything super crazy. I also joked and said that with 6 more relapse free years the bank would offer me insurance! I could almost blame myself for this one.
But mostly I blame the last MS medication that didn't work for me. When I went in to the MS clinic a couple months ago, they pointed out new active lesions on my brain. Because of this I had to "wash out" the medication from my body before switching to something new. That meant that for about a month I wasn't injecting or ingesting any disease modifying medication which is when my body decided it was going to war.
One day I noticed that my walking was off - I was limping - and I had a horrible pain down my left leg. This led me to think it was likely just sciatica so I went to a walk-in clinic where they also thought that was the problem, cleared me of a uti and sent me on my way. The walking didn't get any better, and the sensation in my left leg definitely wasn't right...time to call my neuro.
After about half an hour of safety pin scratching, knee knocking, finger to nose touching and hopping on one foot, the nurse practitioner decided it definitely was a relapse I was having. With that, it was recommended that I went on a very high dosage of steroids for a few days to bring inflammation down quicker and then to taper off of them for a couple of weeks.
I swear things with my relapse got worse over the next few days. My right leg was week, left hand and left foot went numb, my sides were super tight and I was still in so much pain plus I was still limping. I felt like I had 2 pairs of socks bunched up on one foot, 5 gloves on one hand, a corset tied tight and that I was laying on a bed of needles.
Plus with the steroids came a whole new slew of side effects. One minute I was super energized and wanted to do a billion things (unfortunately my body reminded me that I couldn't really move so I just ended up watching a lot of TV). My senses were overloaded, loud sounds gave me migraines and I just wanted to lay in a dark and quiet room because I was angry with everyone and everything. Next came fatigue, followed by insomnia and then more pain. Legit the most stressful week of my life.
I'm happy to say that after 2 weeks of steroids I am finally starting to feel like things are getting better. I still have one more week to go and as much as I hated the steroids, I am grateful that I took them.
Next week will mark the next chapter of my MS book: Tecfidera.
Please be kind to me and work!!!!
