Once a fighter always a fighter.

I was raised in Christian schools all my life until I hit high school, then my parents placed me in a local public high school. I was trying to tell people about Jesus and they were telling me how to get high, at first I did not fit in I did not like school. March 5th 1985 I was in a very terrible car accident that almost took my life. I fractured my skull and had four blood clots in my brain. I broke my nose and my left side was paralyzed for four weeks. I was in a coma for a month. The Neurologist told my parents if I lived I would be a vegetable. I remember waking up from my coma strapped to the hospital bed the nurse came in and asked me if I knew where I was or remembered my name. I did not know anything and when the doctor came in he told me to acknowledge the couple walking in the door next because they were my parents. It took me a couple of months of physical and occupational therapy in the hospital to regain my strength so I could be released to go home. I now realized I was behind in credits at school so I went to summer school, and night school, and even extra credit on campus. I was now more focused and my grades came up as I joined a gym and tried to regain my muscle and coordination for in June I was to be in State Nationals Beauty Pageant for Royalty Miss pageants at the Red Lion Inn in Sacramento for an entire week. I wonder now if ms brewing in my system but I never knew. I was in Choir all four years and Drama, last two years in high school I joined the Drill Team and Dance, even joined the Track team. After the accident I began to have severe Migraine Headaches that I never had before and when I was sprinting I began to get dizzy. I was on a medication for a year after the accident to dissolve the blood clot’s, I am not sure why I continued to get the Migraines. My parents had entered me in beauty pageants and talent competitions since I was fourteen years old. I had a collection of trophy’s crowns and banners that would make anyone proud. Even when I went back to the gym and practiced dance my balance was different. MRI results came back and showed abnormalities that were non-specific. I had been a dancer all my life but sometimes I felt like I looked like a drunk walking. I went to Nationals and placed second, the day I performed I had a throbbing Migraine and was vomiting right up until my performance. I placed in Photography but I noticed in the line up photos that my neck was tilted in all the photos. I was also having severe neck pain with my Migraine’s so I asked for a MRI.

After taking a MRI of my cervical spine it showed that I had very mild arthritis. I graduated high school with a 3.59 GPA and on the Deans Honor Roll. I look back and I do wonder how soon the ms began in my body, I can remember how heart broken I was because I had such a severe Migraine I had to miss performing with the Drill team for the Grape Festival Parade. I was crushed when I had headaches and had to go to the office and lay down on a cot instead of perform at a school rally. My headaches got so bad at times my dad had to take me to the hospital emergency to get a shot of Demerol. Up to this point I had never taken dance lessons except at school my dance class, but it was a natural gift. Now I was getting help from my cousin’s girlfriend and trying to do everything to help my balance. Nothing was working. Was this early signs of MS and the headaches were they also early signs of MS? It did not matter I had been through so much and fought my way back I know I can do it again. Once a fighter, always a fighter.