RRMS

When I was around nine or ten my mom never felt well. That is about all I remember from her first experience with Multiple Sclerosis. She was tired a lot and would sleep for a really long time. I was a kid and the rest is a blur. I do remember her going to lots of doctors and the grown-ups around talking about lots of tests.

I can't remember exactly when she began to feel better but it seems that around the time she started doing better she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This may be a bit of an inaccurate time line, but that is how I remember it. She seemed better and then I was old she had a disease. At the time I did not know, but do now, that the type of MS that my mom has is called Relapsing/Remitting Multiple Sclerosis.
Just click on the term to learn about what that particular type of MS is.

For the rest of my life, since age ten or eleven, my mom has been mostly healthy as far as I know. Again, this is my version of things. It is possible that mom has had relapses throughout that time, but if she did she didn't tell me about it. That is kind of the nature of my mom. She is the forever caregiver and will never stop and let anyone care for her. When she is sick, she doesn't broadcast it and I often don't know if she has felt ill or has not been well. So, as far as I know my mom has been pretty much relapse free most of her life. If she has had any relapse it has been minimal and so much so that she was able to get through it without me knowing about it.

A while ago my mom mentioned her MS and talked about being followed more closely by her specialist. Well obviously that got my antenna up and I have been doing a little reading of my own on RRMS since. As a child I couldn't wrap my mind around the idea that my mom had a disease nor could I even begin to understand the complicated diagnosis.

Fast forward to about 3 1/2 weeks ago. We were having bible study at our house and my mom called as it was starting and left me a message. I decided to check her message just before we got started with our study time. I could hardly understand her. She was asking something about a desk we had, I could tell she was in her car, but her words were all slurred and jumbled. I called her back immediately because I thought something must be wrong. She answered in her usual cheerful voice. She sounded clearer. I asked if she was okay and explained that her speech sounded slurred in her message. She said, "Oh, I am just tired". I explained that I needed to get back to bible study and we ended the call. I just couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right.

My concerns began to grow as my imagination went crazy with the "what if it's MS" thoughts. Since I had done some reading I was really hyper sensitive to any of the symptoms and slurred speech was definitely a sign that relapse was happening. I called my mom that Friday (Memorial Weekend) and she seemed okay, but tired. She explained that she had not had energy for several days and just couldn't seem to get with it. At this point I think she was having some other symptoms as well, but as usual she didn't want anyone to worry or fuss over her. I stressed that I felt like she should see her specialist.

On the following Tuesday mom came up and spent the day with Grayson and I. We had a blast and she seemed like her usual self. We went to Monkey Joe's for a bit and Grayson had a blast going down the big slides with his Grammy. Mom said she was feeling better than she had over the weekend, but of course that was after four days of nothing but rest.

On Wednesday my mom went to the doctor. The news wasn't good. My mom is officially in the middle of a MS attack. She is no longer in remission. I feel sick just typing that out. My mom is so outgoing, stays super busy, and is constantly doing for everyone around her. This attack came fast and has been rough.

If you don't know much about MS, it basically attacks various places in your body. One day your speech is slurred, the next you have vocal tremors. One day you can't use your hands, the next your vision blurs. One day you have trouble swallowing food, the next you have trouble making sensible speech. My mom has had all of the symptoms this go around, plus more that I am sure she doesn't tell anyone about.

She immediately began an I.V. steroid called Solu-Medrol. For five days she went to the hospital and spent 2-3 hours having this medicine pumped into her body. She finished those treatments this past Monday. Now she is on a taper down oral form of the same drug. The treatments were rough. They leave you swollen, leave a metallic taste in your mouth, cause fatigue, and the side effects go on and on. My mom was a trooper! I did have to stay on her a lot about getting her rest. She just doesn't like to stop and admit that she needs caring for and that she needs rest. She is not a well behaved patient.

I don't really know what comes next. She will follow-up with her doctor in another couple of weeks and I guess we will find out then how this may play out. MS is super unpredictable and there is no way to know if or when it will go back into remission. There is no way to know if all of the traces will go away and she will fully recover in the aftermath. There is no way to know how she will feel from one day to the next.

Grayson and I went to visit on Tuesday and she had a good day. She has those, good days and bad days. We had fun resting with her and just visiting. It is so hard to see my mom and know that she is unable to be on the go the way she is used to. Don't be mistaken though, she would never let on for one minute that there is anything wrong. In fact, I made sure to get her permission before posting about this because I am sure some of you readers know my mom and had no idea she is going through all of this.

Well, now you know. Please pray for her. She needs healing and our family needs the old her back.