5 symptoms of multiple sclerosis I ignored

All this was 15 years ago when I was in my forties. But that's unusual to be diagnosed that late. It's usually found in your 20's. In hindsight, I can attribute many curious ailments and symptoms to ms symptoms from when I was younger but they never caused enough of a red flag at the time. By the time I'd had my diagnosis, what followed was a cocktail of nerve pain drugs, anti spasm, muscle relaxation drugs. Then 6 months following the diagnosis, I went into a relapse. Over the course of 4/5 months I went from slightly limping to complete lower body paralysis from the waist down. Yes, that includes bladder and bowels, which I had no control over. That was a really hard few months not knowing if I would ever regain any mobility. I resisted steroids initially but no amount of physio rehabilitation alone was going to work, so I did have a special 5 day course of strong steroids. Then physio started to show results. Now I'm fully mobile and would appear to be 'normal'. Whether it's due to ms, or the relapse, or just age; I do struggle with urinary incontinence and recurring UTIs. I also suffer from several other chronic conditions, some being auto immune diseases like ms. I have skin flare ups, planus lichens of the mouth and similar with bulbs. Pulmonary Fibrosis, liver scarring and has a stroke last year. MS is actually the one disease I have that is mainly under control and causes the least issues. I attended my annual appointment with my MS consultant this week. He confirmed I was in good condition ms wise and it's likely I will be weaned off my DMT in the next few years as the disease tends to 'burn itself out' with age. I will be 64 in November. Every case is different but there is some hope for everyone.

Muscle spasms in my left leg, shortly followedowed by rotational vertigo, horrendous, the fatigue is nasty and some days you're fine then it's like running in to a brick wall. But having said all that it certainly makes you appreciate the good days. x