At about 7.5 months into my pregnancy I began to notice that the right side
of my face and scalp felt numb. I really didn't think it was anything to be
concerned with, I had mentioned it to the girls at work and we joked a bit about
it. When the Dr that I work for overheard us and he said ya know you should probably
mention that to your dr at your next visit. He said it sounds like it's
trigeminal neuropathy and not serious. So at my next OB appt about a week later
I mentioned it to my Dr and he agreed that it was most likely trigeminal
neuropathy and nothing to be concerned with. He said it most likely had nothing
to do with the pregnancy but would probably be gone by the time I delivered. Ok
then no biggie!
Fast forward a few weeks. I'm at work again and I say to a co worker how
it's so weird that I can't taste on the right side of my mouth and my tongue is
numb. Once again my boss overhears and says umm what did you say?? So I repeat
it. He immediately gets on the phone and calls over to the neurologist that
works in the building next to ours and makes me an appt for that evening. I was
a lil thrown off because I had been told not worry but now I was worrying a bit!
Later in the day he pulled me aside and apologized for making me worry and told
me that he believed I had MS (multiple sclerosis). Whew it was kind of a relief because I was of
course thinking the worst!!! MS wasn't a scary thing since my Dad has had it for at
least 16-17 years and he is doing great! At the end of the day I went over to
see the neurologist, he is a lovely man who I immediately felt comfortable with. He
went over all of my family history, my medical history and did a full exam with
all kinds of silly lil tests. He voiced his concerns with me being able to
deliver naturally because if I had a spinal cord issue or even tumor (eek!!!) he
would be worried that the strain of delivering naturally may cause
permanent damage. He said he would like me to have an MRI asap. He never said
what he thought it could be but I was concerned with having an mri at this point
in my pregnancy. (I was about 33 weeks pregnant by that time) We agreed that I
would have it without contrast (no dye would be injected). So I made the appt
for as soon as they could get me in. It was on a Sunday and I was very nervous
but to my surprise it wasn't bad at all! Now I'd have to wait for results...
The very next evening my family and I were sitting down to dinner and my
phone rang, I answered and to my surprise it was my neurologist. My first thought
was oh good the MRI came back totally normal and he wanted me to know so I
wouldn't worry!! But unfortunately he says to me "well Sarah I have reviewed
your MRI and you have what your father has, MS" but I felt a huge relief! I said
ok so what's next?? He says "I like your attitude!" We discussed a few things then,
he wanted me to start taking extra vit D asap. Then he asked me to be sure to
bring my hubby in on that weds for my appt and be sure to bring in a list of
questions we had. So I got to work thinking of everything I could possibly ask
him about and of course searching the internet!
When Weds rolled around I was ready to find out what all I had to do and
had lots of questions to ask! At the appt the first thing he did was pull up my
MRI on the computer and showed us. I knew something def wasn't normal (I'd
watched enough Grey's Anatomy to know what a abnormal MRI looked like!) There
were all these whitish cloudy spots. He called them lesions, that sounded scary.
As he talked I started to get the idea that this was not going to be the same as
my dad's MS. He even said that at one point. He believes that I have had MS for
years, these lesions didn't just happen in a month or 2. He was talking about
starting treatment within 24 hours of delivering my daughter. I began to feel a
lil overwhelmed but tried my best to listen and retain all the info he was
telling us. He gave us so much to think about and consider and lots of
literature to read. He gave us options and said to let him know what we decide.
I still haven't decided what exactly I want to do and how aggressively we should
go at this. The biggest concern is a major relapse after the baby is born.
Apparently it's very unusual to have a flare up while pregnant so he's very
concerned I will have a hard relapse after since I'm already having symptoms and
pregnancy usually makes symptoms subside. There goes me being a boring patient as
my OB has called me!! At one point in during the appt I said well it could be worse right?? And he looked me right in the eye and said "yes it could be much much worse. I really thought when I first examined you that you had a brain tumor." eek that really threw me!! He keeps saying things like "you're interesting to me" and
"very complex patient"....
So now I'm doing lots
of thinking and researching and praying. I need to weigh out all my options and
decide what exactly is going to be best for me and my family. There's no
guarantee what will happen after the baby comes but I have faith that I will be
ok!!! I've always said I was an optimist and positive person but never really
had anything to test that but now I do and my glass is still half full and I still
feel truly blessed!!!
