Sports, Pregnancy, and New Medication

From 2003-2009, there were some up's and down's and a few relapses in between. For the most part I stayed pretty healthy. It seemed that I would have the hardest times in January. I attribute this to the stress of the holidays so when January comes around and I have time to take a step back my body says "Okay there darlin', you did a little too much!". However, I had to learn to realize that holidays shouldn't be stressful so the whole "January" thing only lasted a few years. My main symptoms were weakness and tingling in my arm and leg and fatigue. I also didn't have the strength to do many things and my coordination was off. I used to be a softball player. I still play in co-ed teams today. Unfortunately I can't do what I used to. When I throw short distances, sometimes I throw straight into the ground. Even when I am trying to throw a frisbee or skip rocks while at the lake, I can't seem to have that not happen anymore. It is the weirdest thing as I used to LOVE softball, ultimate frisbee, and skipping rocks at the lake with my siblings. Now, I try and fail and it is funny at first but I get frustrated and just stop and watch others. When I play softball I make sure I play outfield because I seem to be able to judge better throwing far distances. Although it is frustrating at times, I am still VERY grateful that I can still do them (if that makes sense). So many times I speak to people who have it a lot worse than I do, there is nothing better than the things that I can do. I had dreamed of the day that I was going to be a mother. When I was diagnosed with MS I had no idea how that was going to affect my chance of becoming one. How can people do it? How do they have the strength, energy, and money to have a child? Multiple Sclerosis is one of the most expensive medical conditions to have, so I was afraid of not being able to afford it. Many people say you can never afford having children...so don't wait to have money because then it will never happen. :) Anyway, with discussions with my neurologist and other people, women with MS seem to have awesome pregnancies. It seems as though all symptoms leave while pregnant and if women breastfeed, the chances of relapsing decrease. After hearing this information I was ready to do it! :) I seemed to be at ease. The trick is that a patient is advised to stop their medication 2-3 months (I think) before conceiving. This would be fine and dandy if you knew exactly when you ovulated to get pregnant. I stopped the Avonex to get pregnant but my cycle is a bit messed up. I also have a condition called polycystic ovarian syndrome. We tried for 6 months using Clomid and nothing. We went to an infertility specialist and the doctor advised that I would be at a very high risk at having multiples. With having MS and multiples it would be disastrous. We could abort some of them for health reasons, but we both agreed that the option to do so was not right and we would be uncomfortable doing so. Our next step was adoption. Back on the Avonex I went since our decided path was to adopt. Roughly 6 months later, a girl that we knew from church asked us if we wanted to adopt her baby. She would deliver January 2010. We were ecstatic! I can't tell you how awesome it was to feel that we were going to be parents. What was even more awesome, I found out two weeks after she chose us that I was PREGNANT! October 2, 2009 was the day that I found out I was pregnant and the day that I stopped Avonex.

Was I going to have 2 babies then!? Could I do it? I got really nervous and felt uneasy about it. We told the birth mom we would still be happy to take her (it was a girl) and she still wanted us to. January came and the birth mom decided to keep the baby. Somehow, I knew that was going to happen as it just didn't feel right. June 2010 our sweet, adorable, precious, healthy little girl was born and she has been a blessing since. All of those things people said about MS and pregnancy was right. I had the BEST pregnancy (I think) and I think I have the BEST daughter. She was meant to be ours.

I was able to get the sleep I needed since she was such a good sleeper and napper. I never felt sleep deprived (from what I can remember), and all was well. I nursed for 10 months and decided that since I had been off my medication for almost 2 years it was time to start back up again. I got optic neuritis when K was about 10 months old so that is when I decided to stop nursing and since I had to be put on steroids. I developed this condition once before and it is no fun and painful and I was scared I was going to loose my eyesight. When I had this condition with K, I was really scared I wasn't going to see her again. Luckily, steroids have been made to correct the problem and I was able to get my vision back to regular. I was on Avonex for maybe another year and my doctor and I decided to try a different treatment. I seemed to have some sort of relapse once a year. My MRI also showed that the lesions were getting bigger and more of them. I started on Gilenya or Fingolimod. This is one of the first pills to take. YAY!!! No more shots for me!! :) I was really nervous to begin this treatment as it is so new and really scary side effects that could occur. But, I am happy to report that it has been 1 1/2 years since my last relapse and it is AWESOME!!! There are no real side effects to the medication and it is a pill. No complaining here.