Twenty-fricken-twenty. There’s no question that 2020 was a year that everyone will remember. But for me, this was the year my life changed. Not only was I coming to terms with the new normal from Covid-19, but I was also planning a wedding and trying to buy our first house. Surely that was enough stress for one year. But no, 2020 had other plans and those plans would affect me for the rest of my life. I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. To say the year had been one heck of a roller coaster ride would be an understatement.
My MS Story
By Demi Schweers
Relapsing and Remitting MS is very much a roller coaster ride; with highs and lows, loops, and drops and everything in between. To be honest with you, I can’t identify when I even got on the MS ride – the stress of Covid, combined with buying a home and planning a wedding had created a myriad of mental and physical changes that I attributed to stress. In hindsight, the numbness I was feeling in my hands was not from the research I was doing on my phone, the fatigue was not just from sleepless nights planning our wedding, and the brain fog was not due to having too much on my plate, but instead the start of my first MS relapse.
The first serious symptom I recognized was impairment to my vision. In early September I started to experience orb-like figures in my right eye. It would come and go, and at points it was painful. Then one morning I woke up and turned to my husband, Tom, and told him that I could no longer see out of my right eye. That morning everything changed. Luckily we have an ophthalmologist in the family, and she cleared some time in her schedule to check out what was going on. After a few tests she knew immediately it was something neurological and sent me to the ER. After weeks of tests that included MRIs, vision scans, bloodwork, both a failed and successful spinal tap (which could be a whole other story in itself), and 2 weeks in the hospital I finally received my diagnosis.
“Multiple Sclerosis are two words that I will not allow to define me. MS will change my life and already has started to. The future of my life with MS is uncertain, unpredictable, and incurable but I will not allow it to hold me back. Each day is going to be a new challenge, with possible new symptoms, emotions, but the one thing about me is that I am a fighter.
I am strong.
I am determined.
I am young.
I have too much on my bucket list to let MS set me back.”
Reflecting back on those words, they couldn’t ring more true. MS is not something I am, it is something I have. MS has changed my life, and I’d arguably say for the better. It has made me a stronger person, become more vulnerable, have more empathy, and live each day in the moment – because I truly don’t know what the next day brings. MS has led me to an amazing community of individuals and I am surrounded by endless love and support. I have conquered so much in these past two years and so much of it is because of my MS. My work is not done, my battle is not over – I am Demi Schweers and I will conquer this.
Twenty-fricken-twenty. There’s no question that 2020 was a year that everyone will remember. But for me, this was the year my life changed. Not only was I coming to terms with the new normal from Covid-19, but I was also planning a wedding and trying to buy our first house. Surely that was enough stress for one year. But no, 2020 had other plans and those plans would affect me for the rest of my life. I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. To say the year had been one heck of a roller coaster ride would be an understatement.
Relapsing and Remitting MS is very much a roller coaster ride; with highs and lows, loops, and drops and everything in between. To be honest with you, I can’t identify when I even got on the MS ride – the stress of Covid, combined with buying a home and planning a wedding had created a myriad of mental and physical changes that I attributed to stress. In hindsight, the numbness I was feeling in my hands was not from the research I was doing on my phone, the fatigue was not just from sleepless nights planning our wedding, and the brain fog was not due to having too much on my plate, but instead the start of my first MS relapse.
The first serious symptom I recognized was impairment to my vision. In early September I started to experience orb-like figures in my right eye. It would come and go, and at points it was painful. Then one morning I woke up and turned to my husband, Tom, and told him that I could no longer see out of my right eye. That morning everything changed. Luckily we have an ophthalmologist in the family, and she cleared some time in her schedule to check out what was going on. After a few tests she knew immediately it was something neurological and sent me to the ER. After weeks of tests that included MRIs, vision scans, bloodwork, both a failed and successful spinal tap (which could be a whole other story in itself), and 2 weeks in the hospital I finally received my diagnosis.
“Multiple Sclerosis are two words that I will not allow to define me. MS will change my life and already has started to. The future of my life with MS is uncertain, unpredictable, and incurable but I will not allow it to hold me back. Each day is going to be a new challenge, with possible new symptoms, emotions, but the one thing about me is that I am a fighter.
I am strong.
I am determined.
I am young.
I have too much on my bucket list to let MS set me back.”
Reflecting back on those words, they couldn’t ring more true. MS is not something I am, it is something I have. MS has changed my life, and I’d arguably say for the better. It has made me a stronger person, become more vulnerable, have more empathy, and live each day in the moment – because I truly don’t know what the next day brings. MS has led me to an amazing community of individuals and I am surrounded by endless love and support. I have conquered so much in these past two years and so much of it is because of my MS. My work is not done, my battle is not over – I am Demi Schweers and I will conquer this.
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