She got a Great Dane puppy and trained him as a service dog to help her walk. Even though she could no longer run, she continued to swim competitively. “My executive function, decision-making and short-term memory were affected to the point that I was eventually medically unfit for work,” she says. Then her cognition issues became more problematic, especially in her job as a trainer in a printing company. She was even able to run for a few years after her diagnosis, but she couldn’t do marathons anymore, and she began to fall frequently due to balance issues and right-foot dragging. In the beginning, Helga’s symptoms developed slowly, and she didn’t appear ill to others. Fatigue can be a problem, and sometimes hard workouts leave her with muscle stiffness and shaking, but she credits her ongoing sports career for helping her feel in tune with her body’s signals. Now, at 42, she still trains 11 times a week. Nathalie began her international rowing career in 2009 and has won multiple world titles, including two Paralympic medals-silver in London and bronze in Tokyo. However, that has not dampened her competitive spirit. She said to herself, “We’ll see what happens, and you’ll manage it bit by bit.”īy 2005, Nathalie’s MS had progressed to the point of needing a wheelchair. So, she decided to stop comparing herself to others with MS. Her neurologist explained that the disease evolves differently for everyone, and her situation might end up being serious or very mild. “That glimpse of the future was direct and traumatic,” she says. However, learning more about the disease-and the realities of disease progression-scared her.
“Because when you have signs and you don’t know why, it’s worse than knowing, in the end, what you have.” “Ultimately, the diagnosis was more of a relief, than a shock,” she says. Nathalie was a teenager and a competitive athlete when she noticed her first symptoms of MS, but it would take four years of “limbo” before she was diagnosed. Courtesy of Sanofi Nathalie - Pennes Mirabeau, France (diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in 2002) Nathalie is an award-winning rower with multiple international titles. Gina says that while there’s still a lot of education about MS needed, she feels positive about the future of MS because there’s so much research being done. She’d soon learn she was experiencing optic neuritis-her first symptom of MS. When her youngest son was 4 months old, Gina started having problems with her eye. Courtesy of Sanofi Gina-Hamburg, Germany (diagnosed with relapsing multiple sclerosis in 2017)
Their journeys demonstrate how MS can look different for different people and interestingly, how the language used to talk about the disease can greatly impact how people understand their realities. To better understand what navigating life with MS really looks like, three women shared their MS stories with us. Some people with MS have mild symptoms that worsen slowly but sometimes improve, while others can have severe symptoms that drastically alter their daily lives.Īll people with MS share some things in common, however, such as the need to stay informed on the ever-evolving research, find various lines of support and try to remain hopeful as they continue living with the disease. There’s no set pattern or standard progression of the disease, so each person’s experience is unique. Ironically, the only real constant for people living with MS is change.
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