I wasn’t diagnosed with MS until I was 30. But I went undiagnosed at the age of ten. All through high school and even college, I knew that something wasn’t right. When I’d do anything close to athletic and then tilt my head down, I could feel the spasms in my upper spine. That just wasn’t normal. I knew it was related to “that thing when I was a kid” but it never got worse, so I didn’t make a fuss about it. But now it makes sense.
Even through college, I’d have spells when I’d suffer fatigue and not give it much thought. I’d sleep for entire weekends but I was able to push myself to keep going when I had stuff to do. I was in college and just thought I was being lazy.
I’ve never been the most graceful or coordinated of people. I used to just think I was clumsy. How much of that was MS? We’ll never really know.
It wasn’t until right before my 30th birthday that I knew something was seriously wrong. The story of my diagnosis is next.