My Story

In October of 2006, my life took an unexpected turn.

During a very stressful time in my life, while waiting to say goodbye to my husband’s dad who was losing his 4 year battle with colon cancer, I had an unexpected day.
After a month of very mild and unpredictable symptoms (problems with my right leg that lasted few days, tingling sensations in arms and hands, vision blurriness and much, much more), I started having a very strong headache, something that I never had experienced before.
The pain was almost unbearable and it forced me to go to see a primary doctor near home.

The woman doctor that saw me that day and that sent me to do an MRI had already thought of MS but, at that moment, I had no idea that I had something so serious.
After finding out that the MRI showed the presence of many lesions, I found out that there was a chance that I had Multiple Sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that kills the myelin, the fatty substance that covers the nerves in our brains.
After a weekend trip to Massachusetts that saw me very emotional and very insecure about my future, I found myself in the hospital, a victim of vertigo, vision and balance problems.
I was shocked and scared.
I didn’t even have the time to accept the possibility of having this disease and here it is, making me face the reality of it right away.
I was taken away by the emotions and the fears of discovering I had a chronic illness and I spend the first month of my recovery learning as much as I could about Multiple Sclerosis.


As soon as I was able to stand up, to walk straight and to keep food down, I made learning and researching this disease the new job of my life.
I made it part of my daily routine and my desire to learn and be a part of everything that goes on in the field of research, allowed me to feel empowered.

During the first year with the disease, I have had two major attacks that sent me, both times to the hospital for a total of ten days each.
Both relapses were quite serious and required physical therapy and the last one, this past August, gave me problems with walking.
In the course of my first year, I have also changed many medications.
I went from Copaxone to Avonex in a matter of months, I tried plasmapheresis, then I took Rebif for 11 months and very soon I will start taking Tysabri, a medicine that I am quite concerned about.
My MS is very active and it has been from the very beginning.

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