If you haven’t visited the “About Me” tab yet, here’s the gist:

I’m Melissa and I have Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS).

Wow. It feels a bit crazy to type that, because I know I’m going to publish this post where anyone in the world can find it. Until today, I’ve only told a handful of people in my life: my family, a tiny group of my friends, and my two bosses at work. This is such a hard thing to share!

That said, I feel I’m meant to share.

I’ve felt that way since I started realizing something was really wrong in my body and I wasn’t just going through a weird phase of some sort. My symptoms really kicked in full-force starting October 2017. I definitely had stuff going on for quite awhile before that time, but it didn’t seem too concerning. Each symptom presented in such a random way that nothing seemed related to each other whatsoever.

However, by December of 2017 I started getting scared, because I truly felt—I mean it was like I knew it in my bones—that something serious and major was happening with my body and health, and that I needed help. I remember feeling so scared to the point of hyperventilation multiple times, but, oddly, at the same time I felt an overwhelming sense of peace and a deep understanding that whatever was going on was “meant to be.” In fact, I remember in late December—a few days before I went to my first appointment which coincidentally was scheduled on my birthday, by the way—I fell down by the side of my bed (on purpose) and said a prayer where I told God that I would completely accept whatever the outcome of this journey would be, and that I knew this situation—whatever it was—would put me in a position to help many others whom I was meant to help. I told Him I felt complete peace about all of it even though I didn’t have any answers yet, and I meant it.

I still mean it.

I’ll share my onset symptoms and the long process to getting diagnosed in a later post, but you might start to get the picture when you see the specialists I went to during just the first five months of 2018:

1. My Family Doctor
2. ENT (Ear Nose Throat Specialist)
3. Two Different Nephrologists (Kidney Specialists)
4. Pulmonologist (Respiratory/Lung Specialist)
5. Two Different Endocronologists (Hormones/Endocrine System Specialists)
6. Hematologic Oncologist (Cancer Specialist Specializing in Cancers of the Blood)
7. Sleep Specialist
8. Hepatologist (Liver Specialist)

Those were the first eight specialties I worked with, listed in chronological order. May I just state the obvious regarding that list, though, which is that the eight specialties don’t represent eight appointments, rather they represent each area of specialization I worked with and visited many, many times. It also doesn’t account for hospital stays, lab work, or ER visits. I can specifically recall five ER visits in 2018, and the number of hospital bracelets I received last year came to a total of 12! Um, most years I get zero, thank you very much! Well, until now I suppose. On top of all that, I can’t even count or tell you how many lab and imaging tests I had. I’ll throw out a conservative number of 50. Geesh. Come on, Kathy.

Okay I don’t know why I just wrote “Come on, Kathy,” but I plan to make it a thing.

Anyway, that’s the gist of the beginnings of my path that eventually led me to the right doctors with the right specialty. Thanks, Kathy!

I’ll be sharing much, much more in posts to come, and I would love to have you share in this journey with me. And here’s the thing, folks:

• Maybe you are a curious cat who knows nothing about MS and just wants to learn something new. Great!
• Maybe you know someone with MS and want to get a deeper look into their experience to develop more compassion for what they’re going through. Awesome!
• Perhaps you yourself think you may have MS and you can’t get a doctor to take you seriously no matter how hard you try. That sucks! But you’re surely welcome and I think you’re warriors!
• Lastly, of course I can’t leave out the people who have a known diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, in whatever form, whatever severity, and whatever way(s) it’s affecting your life. I (literally) feel your pain, and I thank you for taking part in this journey of mine. You ROCK!

To all of you, whoever you are… because like I even know you unless you’re Kathy…, thanks again for reading. Let’s meet up here again soon!