Come Ride My MS Roller Coaster With Me

Hello my name is Penny. I was diagnosed with something called transverse myelitis back in 2006 and what that is is its inflammation of your spinal cord on both sides transversely. I was then told by a neurologist that it’s a precursor to multiple sclerosis but he wasn’t going to tell me that I would get it anytime in the future. A year later I was having other issues, especially with my eyes. More tests were taken, and to my horror, I was then diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

The symptom I was experiencing most at the time

At that point in time, I had something called sixth nerve palsy which I come to find out later is optic neuritis. I have been in and out of the hospital over 80 times on all sorts of steroids cause of course that’s what helps the most it’s the best worst drug but it works.

How he explained this newer medication to me

I had to go through a series of something called plasma transfers because at one point my doctors didn’t know what else to do for me. None of the MS medications, either the shots or the pills, was doing anything for me. I just continue to get worse so I was sent to a multiple sclerosis specialist who is now my neurologist for good and he told me about a really good medication that he’s been studying for a long time called Mavenclad.

I came to a decision about it all

He told me about the risks and he also told me that it was a chemotherapy drug but not in the way that I think so I did some homework and I got back to him and I told him I was willing to try it, that everything else that we tried wasn’t working. I since progressed to secondary progressive multiple sclerosis but since taking the Mavenclad my MS is basically at a standstill. I’m in remission sort of speak.

I now needed help with another side effect

Because of all the steroids I was put on I gained so much weight, so much that I couldn’t lose it on my own. I was over 150 pounds overweight so I then decided since I was doing so good I needed to do something about my weight so I opted into getting a gastric sleeve done. I had my gastric sleeve done on January 6 of 2020. My starting weight was 276 pounds. I am now 162 pounds and I’m less than 5 feet tall but my walking has gotten better. I’m back to driving. I am the happiest I’ve ever been. Do I still have MS? Of course, I do but it doesn’t have me. Thanks for listening. I hope my story helps others! Much love and respect,
Miss Penny K