The first signs of MS
Like most people who develop multiple sclerosis (MS), Rachael Chiasson of Abbotsford, B.C., was caught completely off guard when she experienced the first overt symptoms of the disease. Five years ago, Rachael, then 32, travelled to Calgary with her husband and two sons, Thomas, 4, and Jake, two months old, to visit her in-laws.
During that visit the vision in her right eye started to get blurry. "It seemed like I was looking through a broken lens. There was a milky, cloudy spot in front of my eye. As the day went on, it got worse, until I had no vision," says Rachael, who also felt pressure on top of her eye. The emergency doctor at Foothills Hospital gave her ibuprofen to reduce the swelling behind her eye.
Straight home to the doctor
She flew home the next day and was seen immediately by an ophthalmologist at Vancouver General Hospital, who told her she had a classic case of optic neuritis, a swelling of the optic nerve.
"I thought it was an infection in my eye, I'd take some antibiotics, and it would be finished," recalls Rachael. But the doctor recommended she see a neurologist at the UBC Hospital MS clinic. "I had no idea he was considering MS," she says. "I just panicked. I was so unaware of the disease. All I thought was, I'm going to be in a wheelchair. It was such a blow."
Follow-up tests
An MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), one of the critical tests used to diagnose MS, showed Rachael had three lesions on her optic nerve and two lesions on nerves that control the legs.
Suddenly, there was an explanation for the mysterious episodes of tingling and numbness she'd first noticed in her legs a few years earlier. After the diagnosis was confirmed, she was devastated. "It was almost depression at the start. I really thought this was it for life as I knew it," says Rachael, who came to Canada from New Zealand in 1991. But then, supported by her husband, she had to make some difficult decisions about the best treatment options and how to proceed in raising their two young children.
A diagnosis brings new challenges
The challenges and dilemmas Rachael faced are typical of those of most women newly diagnosed with MS. She also had to grapple with some critical questions for which there are no clear-cut answers. What causes MS and why did she develop the disease? How rapidly would the disease progress, and how would it affect her vision, muscles, balance, coordination, energy level and ability to walk? Could she be fully active as a parent raising two young boys, and for how long? Would she be able to continue working as a preschool teacher -- and would she want to? What steps, if any, could she take to prevent attacks, slow the progression of the disease and remain as healthy as possible?
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