Sarah Fantonial

Where the story began...

It was February 2019. I was finishing up my first year of nursing, working in the emergency department. It was a hot day, and I got a migraine from being in the sun, which wasn’t unusual for me… but this time, I couldn’t get rid of it, and it lasted 2 months. I got referred to a neurologist who said my MRI showed a lesion in the corpus callosum, but nothing to worry about. Then in October, I woke up with pins and needles in my right foot, but thought nothing of it. I went to work, and throughout the day, the pins and needles kept going up my leg. So I did what any other nurse would do… I took some magnesium, potassium and applied compression stockings. But no luck. By the next day, the pins and needles were up to my belly button and my leg felt dead and difficult to walk on. I went to the GP who couldn’t figure out what was wrong. So I saw my neurologist and got an MRI, which showed a lesion in my spinal cord. Having two neurological episodes with lesions in more than one area of the central nervous system meant an automatic diagnosis of MS. I was absolutely shocked! I had only ever known people with MS who were in wheelchairs or on their death bed, so I thought I had just been handed a death sentence. I was referred to the MS Clinic at The Alfred, and by the time I saw them, I only had partial vision in my left eye from a new lesion in my optic nerve. This was treated with steroids to restore my sight, but came with terrible side effects. I was immediately started on a monthly infusion of immunotherapy (I’ll do another blog on medications at a later date…). I now have a total of 7 lesions, meaning my MS is stable, but doesn’t mean symptom free. But that’s for another time!!